True Face
by darkestdepths90
Summary: Naruto was beaten as a child, yet he doesn't have a scratch on him, or does he? stronger Naruto but not super. rating could go up no pairing as of yet if at all. Don't own Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Just because it's in this catergory, doesn't means that i'm pairing them together, in fact i might not even have a pairing in this story at all. I haven't decided yet, and if I do it will be moved to the correct catergory at that time. Thank you and enjoy!**

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"Alright class, today we'll be doing spars." The entire class stood outside in the academy's large training ground, the second largest in Konohagakure **(the Village Hidden in the Leaves) **second only to Training Ground 44 A.K.A. the Forest of Death. The instructor of the class was a chunin with a scar across his nose and brown hair tied into a short ponytail.

"Iruka-sensei, I want to fight Sasuke-teme!"

Iruka looked over at a boy in bright orange with blonde hair and whisker marks on his cheeks.

"Naruto, I can't let the top of the class spar the bottom, neither of them would gain from it."

"Yeah dope, you wouldn't stand a chance me, I'm an Uchiha." Naruto glared at a boy with black hair and eyes, wearing a blue shirt and white shorts.

"If you're so sure, why don't you just try it asshole?" Sasuke just snorted.

"Naruto, watch your language!" The blonde didn't reply to Iruka.

"What the matter teme, you scared you might lose?"

The blonde and pink haired girls that stood behind to Sasuke started to shriek. "Don't talk to Sasuke-kun like that dope!"

"Will you two just shut up, I'll talk to the teme however I want to!" Everyone was shocked at this because Naruto would usually be trying to get a date from the pink haired girl, Sakura. Sasuke just smirked and walked out further into the training ground. Naruto's face was unreadable as he took his place across from him. "Let's start already."

Iruka just shook his head, but inside he was worried for the blonde. 'I hope you know what you've gotten yourself into Naruto.'

"Tell you what dope, I'll give you a handicap, I won't use any jutsu to make this fairer."

"Fuck you teme." Naruto put his right hand on the base of his left arm. "I don't need nor I do I want your pity." Naruto tilted his head to both sides, getting a crack each time and rolled his shoulders. "Ready when you are teme."

Sasuke smirked and got into the academy taught ready stance and Iruka was again shaking his head. The chunin raised his arm above his head and, after a look towards both fighters, quickly brought it down. "Begin!" Sasuke charged forward, intent of finishing this fight quickly. He swung his fist towards Naruto face, but Naruto grabbed it with his right hand and used his shock to land a strong kick to the ribs beneath it. Naruto released the arm and swung the his right at the side of Sasuke's head, only to have him duck and get his feet kick out from under him. As he landed, he rolled backward into a crouch before standing again to face the smirking Sasuke.

"Give it up dope, you don't stand a chance against me." Naruto didn't say a word, he just charged toward his opponent with speeds unheard of for the blonde. Again Sasuke's shock gave him the opening he need and said boy found Naruto right fist implanted in his gut, Naruto removed his fist and delivered a spin kick to the side of his head, sending him crashing to the ground. The Uchiha pushed himself back to his feet and glared at Naruto, who in the midst of the fight found himself between Sasuke and the rest of the class. "I'm an Uchiha, you can't beat me!" Sasuke started running through hand signs. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! **(Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)**" A large fireball shot from his mouth heading straight towards Naruto and the rest of the class.

Iruka was wide eyed, he never imagined that Sasuke would take it this far. The class was screaming as they tried to get out of the way, Naruto took a quick look over his shoulder before running straight at the fireball, his left arm was brightly glowing blue. When he got close enough he stuck his left hand out and planted his feet solidly. The fireball collided with his hand and chakra started shooting off towards the sides of his hand, forming a bullet shape around him. Even though he had come in contact with the fireball, he hadn't stopped it, only slowed it, and it was pushing him back, leaving trenches from his feet.

As much as he tried, he couldn't stop it, but he had bought enough time for everyone to get out of the way, everyone except him that is. The chakra around him grew closer and closer to his shoulder till it finally gave out and the ball hit him causing an explosion. As the air started to clear, Naruto fell face first to the ground, his body had more smoke raising from it, and most of his clothes were gone, his pants had become a pair of holey shorts, but the rest was basically all gone save a few scraps here and there. Sasuke's smirk just widened. "I told him he couldn't beat me." The next thing he knew, a very irate Iruka had knocked him to the ground.

"You arrogant little bastard! If he hadn't taken that hit you might have killed half the class! I don't care if you're the last Uchiha, you should know better than to put your classmates in harms way!"

"But Iruka-sensei, it's the dope's fault, he shouldn't have thought he could beat Sasuke-kun!"

"Shut it Haruno, you are one of the ones that Naruto protected." Iruka turned his back on them and started towards where Naruto now laid. The first thing he noticed that saddened him greatly, were the scars all the way down his back and arm. Iruka stopped and stared at the boy, his eyes glistening with tears threatening to fall, Naruto left arm was missing from just below his shoulder. Iruka quickly rushed to the boy's side and turned him over, his front was just as bad as his back, if not worse. He examined the boy's left shoulder and was shocked to see that it seemed to have been missing for some time, but how could that be, he had had it when he came to class.

Iruka glanced down at the boy's stomach to see a circle around his navel free of scars. By now a few students had made their way over to them and they were all horrified at what they saw. Some of them started to whisper amongst themselves. "Did Sasuke do all that?"

"No way, he barely touched him and neither used weapons."

"What about the giant fireball when it exploded?"

"I don't think so, those scars look pretty old."

"But he didn't have any on his face earlier." At this Iruka tore his gaze from Naruto's stomach and looked at the boy's face, there were five scars there as well. One went from his hairline across his right eye and through two whiskers on his right cheek. A second started at his jaw, went through all three whiskers, and ended just below his left eye, while another went diagonally across the bridge of his nose and crossed them both slightly. A short one went up towards his hair from the outside edge of his left eyebrow and another that was half an inch long that went outward at an upwards angle from the right corner of his mouth.

"Iruka-sensei…" Iruka looked up and saw that the entire class had now gathered around the unconscious boy, and that even most of Sasuke's fangirls had tears in their eyes. "Iruka-sensei, what happened to him?"

He looked down at the boy sadly. "I don't know." As he spoke the blonde started to stir and as he opened his eyes, everything except his clothes returned to how he had looked when he first walked into class that morning. "Naruto…"

Said blonde cut off Iruka. "Is everyone alright Iruka-sensei?"

"They're fine thanks to you, but what about you Naruto?"

Naruto just smiled. "I'm fine Iruka-sensei."

Iruka frowned. "What happened to your left arm?"

Naruto's smile faded and he stood up before walking away. Iruka grabbed his arm. "Naruto, we should at least take you to the hospital!"

Naruto jerked his arm out of Iruka's hold, his eyes, filled with unrestrained malice, locking with Iruka's. "I'm fine!" Naruto saw the hurt in Iruka's eyes and spoke in a sad tone. "I'm going home, I'll see you tomorrow."

Iruka watched him walk a ways away before turning back to the class. "That will be all for today, I'm afraid I have to have a chat with the Hokage. You should all head home, I'll see you all tomorrow morning for class." With that said, he disappeared in a puff of smoke, reappearing in front of the Hokage's desk. "What happened to Naruto?"

The Hokage started to panic. "What do you mean I saw him just this morning, didn't he show up at the academy?"

"Yes he did, but when he sparred with Sasuke Uchiha, he took a hit from a large fireball to protect his classmates and fell unconscious, I'm not sure how he survived, but I have a good guess. But what I want to know is why he was covered in scars, five of which are on his face, and had no left arm, and why they appeared as though they had been there a while."

The Hokage mouth was hung open and he was letting off a restrained amount of killing intent. "He looked fine this morning, how could this be possible?"

"He looked fine when he walked into class too, but once he fell unconscious, they were there and were gone again when he woke up. I would say genjutsu, but his scores in that field are almost as bad as Rock Lee's were last year."

"We had always assumed that Kyuubi was helping healing him because he never had a scratch on him after he was discharged from the hospital. I'll need to speak with him about this."

"I already tried, he doesn't want to talk about it, and as stubborn as he is, I doubt you or anyone for that matter would be able to make him."

"But for me to help him I must know."

"That's the problem, you can't help him, every time you try, the council interferes, and things get worse. If you try to give him protection, he'll refuse and we don't know for certain who can and cannot be trusted."

The aged Hokage sighed. "What do you suggest Iruka?"

"I suggest, and I can't believe I'm saying this, that we tell him the truth about everything." The Hokage paled. "I don't know how he'll react, but after all he's been through, he deserves to know."

The old man sighed. "You may be right, but I would still like to know how this has happened, if only to ensure it doesn't happen again."

"He may never tell us what happened, and unless they have a hundred percent grantee that they won't be punished for it, the assailants won't come forward. And even if you do give them that, we would probably have every villager that hates him in here telling us different stories, so we still wouldn't know which one was true."

"I agree, so we'll just have to persuade him into telling us, I'm sure an all he can eat meal of ramen will be more than enough." Sarutobi's smiled widely.

This time it was Iruka who paled. "Are you buying, because I'm not sure I could do that and have enough left to live on." The Hokage smiles dimmed as he nodded. "That being decided, I'm not entirely sure that that will get him to talk." Iruka sadly looked towards the ground, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by the Hokage. "He snapped at me when I asked him, and his eyes… I've never seen him like that. The malice I saw in them could rival the amount the villagers feel towards him, maybe even Kyuubi's itself."

Sarutobi's eyes saddened as well. "Can't say I blame him, I have found myself wondering if Minato made the right choice more than once. It must be harder for him, not know why they hate him." Iruka, although shock this had come from the leader of the village, couldn't help but agree with his statement. "We should go speak with him." Iruka nodded and they both disappeared in twin puffs of smoke.

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Naruto sat on his bed with his back against the wall, his hand resting on his left bicep. 'How could I have been so stupid?! One damn fireball and all my hard work goes out the fucking window. Damn that Uchiha bastard, attacking me with that jutsu while I was in front of the rest of the class, though I will admit it was more powerful than I thought it would be.' He let the genjutsu fall around him, revealing his true appearance, and looked down at his left arm. It had become almost transparent and was dark blue in color. He moved each finger individually into a fist before quickly opening and closing it again.

He replaced the genjutsu when he felt two chakra signatures appear outside his house. He quickly made it to the door before they had a chance to knock. He could tell by the look on their faces that they were surprised. "If you're coming in, come in, I want to get this over with." He walked into the kitchen of his small apartment, where he heard the door close and the sound of them sitting down on his worn out couch. "Do you want something to drink?"

Out in the living room, if it could be called that, Sarutobi and Iruka were looking around his dismal dwelling. "Tea please." They were answered by the sound of running water before Naruto entered the room.

"The water is boiling. So I take it Iruka-sensei told you what happened."

"Yes he did, and there are a few questions that I need you to answer. First, what happened and why you didn't tell me."

"It wasn't all done at the same time, I don't recall most of it and what I do is all blurred together. I didn't tell you because it wouldn't change the fact that it happened."

"You still should have told me, I can't do anything if I don't know what happening."

"Well obviously what you do when you do know isn't enough if they keep attacking me."

Both adults looked sad, but Iruka looked mad as well. "Naruto don't speak to the Hokage like that!"

"It's alright Iruka, he's above everyone else has the right to be angry." There was a sharp whistling from the kitchen and Naruto got up to fix the tea. He came back and handed a cup to each of them at the same time, again they were shocked. "Naruto, how are you able to do that, Iruka said your left arm was gone."

Naruto sighed and released the genjutsu again. Both of their jaws dropped. "Pure chakra? How could no one have felt that much chakra being put out? And how can you have any chakra left for the academy jutsu?"

"I've always had a lot of chakra, making the arm as close to solid as I can and the genjutsu uses up about half of it. As for why no one's felt it, I don't really know, I still kind of new to the sensing thing, I didn't even know what it was till last year, as it is I can only sense sources, but not who or how powerful they are."

Sarutobi was chuckling while shaking his head. "You are further along than you think, most ninja don't start sensing chakras till they're chunin at least. As for how you're suppressing you chakra, it could be that you are doing it subconsciously in an attempt to stay hidden for others." Naruto shrugged and took a sip from his own cup. "Naruto, do you remember how you lost your arm, or even when?"

"The night of the Uchiha massacre, an Anbu attacked me outside the grocery store near their compound, though he did seem surprised when the henge dropped. Then again, I did transform into an Uchiha I had seen, so he was probably the guy that orchestrated the massacre and thought I really was who I was pretending to be."

"If you were able to convince an Anbu you were someone else, why can you barely do a passable one in my class?"

He held up his chakra hand. "I only have one hand to mould chakra with and I guess I overcompensate with more chakra. I'm able to do Henge and Kawarimi fairly well, but it isn't likely that I'll be able to use Bunshin again." They looked at him confused. "This arm takes a lot of chakra just to make it so I can use it, but it also works as a control exercise because I have to keep its shape or the genjutsu won't work properly and just to move it. The problem is that while my control is going up, so is my chakra reserves, about twice as fast as my control. Basically even with my control going up…"

"You have too much chakra to control." Naruto nodded. Iruka looked like he was lost deep in thought when he spoke. "Naruto, if you are able to use the chakra arm physically, why did you only use your right arm in your spar with Sasuke?"

"I'd rather lose using only my right arm then win because my chakra increases the damage done by my left, especially against him."

Sarutobi smiled inwardly. 'He's already starting to sense chakra, he even stumbled upon the bases of Tsunade's super strength, and he's not even a genin.'

"Now what are you really here for?" They both looked shocked by his question. "If you were only going to ask me these questions, you would have summoned me to your office Ojii-san, the only reason for you to come out here to the wastelands is if what you have to say is meant to stay between us. So what is it?"

Both adults looked at each other hoping the other would start, but then the Hokage sighed. "I was hoping not to have to tell you this till you were a chunin, but after all I've learned today, I don't think I can afford to wait any more. Naruto, I'm going to put this as bluntly as I can, the night you were born, the Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi no Yoko within you."

Both he and Iruka braced themselves for the yelling, ranting, and the more than likely temper tantrum that would come, but it didn't. "Is that it?"

Iruka's jaw dropped. "What do you mean 'Is that it?'?! You were just told that you have a demon sealed in you and that's all you have to say?!"

"Well yeah, I've known for a while. She's really not so bad once you get use to the sadist."

"She? Kyuubi is female?"

"It's not so hard to believe, especially after knowing Tsunade. Now, how did you find out?" The Hokage had a seriously scary face, but it didn't come close to fazing Naruto.

"Happened just after the Anbu cut off my arm…"

**Flashback:**

A seven-year-old Naruto woke up to find himself in a place that was dark and wet for he was laying on his back in knee deep water. The memory of what had occurred passed through his vision and his right hand immediately went to his stump of a left shoulder. He found it odd that he felt no pain from the spot, but knew he shouldn't look a gift-horse in the mouth. He pushed himself to his feet and tried to get an idea of where he was. He saw that the walls were made of stone and that he was in a tunnel of some sort, but the presence of the water had him assuming a sewer. Another thing he noticed was that the tunnel he was in was a dead end and that a red light came from the other way. 'Hmm, I wonder if I died, one of those books Ojii-san gave me said something about seeing a light at the end of a tunnel when they were close to dying.' He shrugged. "Only one way to find out."

The only sounds heard in the tunnel were that of Naruto's legs moving through the water and the resulting waves lapping against the walls. After what seemed like hours of walking, he reached the end of the tunnel, having passed three other passages, he wondered why he had continued towards the red light. He knew why he had passed the first turn off without a second thoughts was because it had a depressing aura about it, the second had a single door with paper wards all over it with glowing blue characters in a language he didn't recognize, the third was the longest as far as he could tell, but every door was covered in the same wards, but the characters glowed red. The aura of the third tunnel was like nothing he had ever felt and screamed danger and death. But nothing he had seen so far was able to prepare him for what he found at the end of the tunnel, it was a large intricate two-door gate with another paper ward with the kanji for seal keeping it closed.

Naruto walked right up to the gate hand placed his hand on the seam of the two doors, but stepped back quickly as the whole gated glowed blue for a moment. Then he felt the same aura as he had from the third tunnel and a dark chuckle come from within the gate. He took a few more steps away from the gate before he noticed the two large red eyes with cat-like pupils staring down at him from near the top of the gate. A smile of large sharp fangs appeared below them. **"Oh my, I hadn't expected you for some time, or I would have tidied up a bit."** Another chuckle was emitted from the creature. **"So what brings my jailor to my lowly abode?"**

"Jailor? What are you talking about? Who are you?"

The smile stretched even farther. **"Oh, they haven't even told you. Well then, allow me to explain."** The opposite side of the gatewas lit up by the same red glow that lead him here, and what he saw made him fall over in shock and slight fear. The glow was coming from the creature, that he now identified as being dog-like with nine tails swishing around behind it. **"I am the Kyuubi no Yoko, strongest of the Kitsune demon clan and Queen of demons!"** The now identified Kyuubi basked in the silence of her jailor assuming it was from awe and fear until she heard a quiet chuckle which soon turned into full blown laughter. Her head tilted to the side as she observed her jailor until his laughter stopped. **"Why were you laughing? Are you not afraid?"**

Naruto face was covered in a very fox-like smile. "I just realized how obvious it was why the villagers hate me, my birthday, the names, the whisker marks, I've been so stupid."

Now it was Kyuubi's turn to be shocked. **"They hate you for containing me?"**

"You don't know? They think I am you, how can you be sealed in me and not know?"

**"I've been cut off from anything outside this room until you touched the seal and I've been too occupied to look through your memories. Hope you don't mind, I'll be out of it for a bit, if you do, too damn bad."**

"Not at all, if you're even half as bad as they tell us, you'll enjoy what you see greatly." Again the Kyuubi tilted her head to the side, but stayed quiet before her eyes were enveloped by the darkness. Naruto laid back down, floating on his back, his ears were underwater and he just stared off into space as he waited for Kyuubi to finish. Eventually his eyes closed and he thought of what could possibly be in the second tunnel as he was now pretty sure of what the other two were. In the end he came up with two guesses that were more likely than the others, a bloodline, or a forcefully repressed memory. He felt more than heard the growl indicating Kyuubi's return, and the amount of killing intent made it hard for him to force himself to stand. He saw both sadness and anger in the demoness' eyes.

The red glow returned and Kyuubi seemed to dissolve into it before the aura took the form of a human. In place of the giant fox stood a woman that looked to be in her twenty's with red hair that went down to her mid-back, her eyes were the same, she had the same whisker marks as Naruto but they were wider and more defined, and she wore a formal black kimono with a red and white fox on the front and the kanji for fox on the back in red. Naruto's jaw dropped, if he didn't know she was a demon, he might have mistaken her for an angel.

"**Remove you coat and shirt."** He shrugged and did so revealing nothing but unmarked skin. **"The technique too."** He did so without a moment's hesitation, immediately the amount of killing intent doubled. **"They call you a demon and when they do this to a kit?! Even true demons don't treat kits like this! One of them used you to save them and they blame the tool of their salvation!"** Her rant came to an end when she noticed that Naruto was on his knees from the amount of killing intent she was letting off. This was also the first time she had taken a good look at his face and he noticed her frown deepen.

"What? I'm not use to being exposed to so much unfocused killing intent."

**"It's not that you reacted that way, frankly I'd be angrier if you didn't, it's just you look remarkably similar to the one who placed me here, are the two of you related?"**

"I wouldn't know, would I? You've seen my memories, you should know I'm an orphan."

"**You're right… sorry." **She bowed her head slightly.

He casually waved it off. "It's fine. We have bigger things to worry about anyway, such as my missing left arm and the fact that until now my henge has kept everyone in the dark about my scars."

**"Well, I can't regenerate whole limbs, but I can teach you a better disguising technique."**

"But not before someone finds me."

**"That's were you're wrong, the one who put me here seems to have wanted me to suffer for longer than your pitiful mortal life can last, so time progresses slower here than out there. From what I can tell it's only been a few seconds since your arm was cut off, your body hasn't even hit the ground yet."**

"So if I train in here I'd become stronger faster?"

**"Only when it comes to chakra control and jutsu as you humans call them. Your physical body will gain nothing. If I were to teach you a fighting style, in order for you to gain the muscle memory you would have to train out there as well before you could advance any further."**

"Okay, what do I do first?"

**"You have a large amount of chakra, but no where near enough control to use the technique I want to teach you, so you'll start there."**


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay, what do I do first?"

**"You have a large amount of chakra, but no where near enough control to use the technique I want to teach you, so you'll start there."** Kyuubi sighed quietly. **"Normally you would be taught to walk up walls and such first. But due to the amount of water on the floor, it would be incredibly difficult for you to do so, so instead you will learn to walk on water first, then wall climbing should be rather easy, but switching from one to the other will be harder."**

"How do I do it?"

**"You push chakra out of your feet until you on top of the water, then move around, constantly putting out chakra, but you have to adjust the output for added weight and depth of the water. I won't add any weight yet, but once you get it down I will so you can get use to adjusting the output before you start wall climbing. I want for you to be able to do both skills without really having to think about it. You'll have to learn as fast as possible though, the one that attacked you might still be out there, but they seemed surprised when you technique dropped."**

"So you think they may have attacked because of who I looked like, not who I am. If that's true, chances are they'll take me to the hospital or Ojii-san. Then again if this was an act of personal revenge, they wouldn't or they'd have to explain why they attacked and more than likely be imprisoned, if not executed."

"**Exactly, we have no way of knowing that they won't just leave you where you are, but I'm already working on closing the wound so you won't die of blood loss. Now you should get to work."** Naruto nodded and started channeling chakra into of his feet. The result was astounding, instead of pushing him to the top of the water, the water was pushed outwards from his feet in a three-foot circle. He shook his head and stopped the flow of chakra, causing the water to rush to fill the space. **"I guess I should have elaborated more, you have to push it out of the bottom of you feet. Oh and for some reason, the floor of the room is built like a shallow bowl, so the middle is deeper than the outsides."**

"Alright, thanks." There was a faint glow of blue beneath the water and slowly Naruto begin to rise out of the water. Once he got on top of the water, he was doing fine until he tried to take a step, which caused him to shift his concentration and fall back in. Neither said a word till he was able to walk easily, then it was to see if he could keep his concentration while doing something that kept his mind busy. "Hey Kyuubi, what's your real name?"

"**What makes you think Kyuubi isn't my real name?"**

"It's just that it seems strange. I'm mean sure you have nine tails, but the book in Ojii-san office said the demons had to gain their tails, and had names for all of the other Bijuu except you. Like the Ichibi's is Shukaku and the Hachibi's is Yamata no Orochi."

"**No human should know so much about demons, let alone their names." **She paused a moment. **"Except maybe Shukaku. That insane tanuki probably shouted it out every time he went on a killing spree. Demons do not give out their names lightly, not even to other demons, most only give it to someone they have the utmost respect for, which is why no one knows mine. For a single human to know the names of even two of the Bijuu is an honor, but to know eight of the nine should be all but impossible, unless they learned them through others."**

"Has anyone ever come close to earning yours?"

"**Through I hate to say it, if both your Yondaime and I had come out of that battle, I would have considered telling him. He was willing to endure eternal torment to save his people, but after seeing how they've treated you, I can't imagine a reason as to why."**

"Will you tell me?"

He heard her chuckle. **"Maybe someday, for now Kyuubi will be fine."**

"Alright. So, this technique you're going to teach me, how am I supposed to use it if I can't use hand signs?"

**"This technique is nothing like those you're use to. Think of it as a simpler version of the one you were using before, but harder to detect and lift. It will still dissipate if you fall unconscious, but unlike the one you already know, you don't need hand seals because you're not just a coating yourself in chakra, instead it's like taking a blanket of chakra and throwing it over yourself. It also takes conscious thought to keep it up, just like water walking, instead of it staying up till the chakra used is gone or you drop it. But just like water walking, you can make it so you do it without really thinking."**

"What about my left arm, what will fill the space and give it the right shape?"

**"That's the reason why it requires conscious thought and your need for better chakra control to use it. You have to keep a constant image of what the cover looks like in your mind. The arm will also be hollow and through the use of your chakra, you'll be able to move it, but that's it, it would otherwise be like your Bunshin technique."**

Flashback End:

Naruto noticed when he mentioned Kyuubi's question about him and the Yondaime being related, that the Sandaime's hand fidgeted, but didn't say anything and just continued. "It took five days to get water walking down, another three for wall climbing. Four more to get the technique down, and I spent another four trying to relearn the Bunshin, Henge, and Kawarimi, it turned out that only six minutes passed."

He was eyeing Sarutobi discreetly, but averted his attention when Iruka spoke. "So when did you… I'm not sure if learn is the right word to use, but when did you learn to make a new arm with chakra?"

"When I was working on the Bunshin, I figured that since it was only an illusion anyway, I'd try to form it with a left arm. Anyway, as I was trying to make an outline of my body with chakra, I noticed the chakra was stopping at the shoulder, so I pushed harder and once it finally did form the arm, it was visible, but still transparent. When Kyuubi saw it, she told me of the advantages it could have as a control exercise and that if I used enough chakra it could potentially be a functional replacement. At first I just stuck to the illusion to get around, and experimented with the arm when I was here, until I could keep it and the illusion stable. I found out the enhanced power by accident, I had completely forgotten that it was chakra, so I when hit one of the training posts, the wood shattered. It caused quite a ruckus too, so I took off as fast as I could before anyone showed up."

Iruka smiled slightly before looking at the clock. "Sorry Naruto, but I'm afraid I have to get going, I still have tomorrow's lesson to plan. I'll see you in class." In a puff of smoke, the chair he had been occupying was vacant.

Sarutobi stood up with a smile. "I appreciate you telling us Naruto, and thank you for the tea, but I'm afraid I have to be getting back as well. My paperwork has probably tripled by now, I swear, it reproduces faster than rabbits."

He started for the door, but was frozen in his tracks by a single sentence. "She was right, wasn't she?" The Sandaime turned back to see that the illusion was back up and that Naruto was staring down at his cup. "He was an orphan with no siblings, so that would make him my father wouldn't it Ojii-san?"

"Naruto I…"

"Ojii-san, I can understand not telling the populace, if word reached his enemies, they would try to kill me, or kidnap me if they knew about Kyuubi. Hell I can understand not telling me because of how I acted, but you could have at least told me about my mother. Unless..." Naruto looked towards the Hokage, but his hat hid his eyes from view, and Naruto went back to staring at his now empty cup. "She abandoned me."

"That's what we are forced to assume. No one saw anyone enter or leave her hospital room except you and Minato, but Kushina and your older sister were there when he came to get you and gone when it was over. Before you ask, I never learned your sister's name, I only met her the once and at the time I was trying to talk Minato out of doing the sealing. All I really recall is that she had red hair just your mother, and that she was almost two when you were born. I can't be sure, but I believe that I have it written down somewhere in my office, and if I can't find it, I'm sure my old student Jiraiya will know it, Minato always said he was the closest thing to a father he ever had."

"If you can find it, that's fine, but if not it's okay, chances are she doesn't even know I exist, and if she does, I doubt she'll want to meet me. In any case, I think I've found a way to mold chakra properly, but I need to do a bit more studying before I try, and if it's possible, would you be willing to help me?"

"I'll be happy to help as long as you tell me what it is you're doing when it comes time to." Naruto gave a nod and received a smile before the Sandaime disappeared with a puff of smoke.

After he left, Naruto went into the bathroom to take a shower, and as he passed the mirror, he had to take a double take, he found that he was taller than the illusion he used lead people to believe. **'If you took it off for more than a few minutes at a time, you might have realized it sooner kit. So you still plan to go through with it?'**

'Once I can get the mixture right, yes. It may be the only way I'll be able to properly mold chakra again.' He started to undress, but stopped when his shirt was at his neck. 'Kyuubi, I'm cutting the link for a while.'

He heard a light chuckling within his mind. **'It's not like I haven't seen it all before Kit.'**

'I don't care, it's just too weird, even for us.' He severed the mental link before continuing towards his shower.

--

He walked out of the bathroom in a pair of boxers, towel draped over his shoulders, and his genjutsu still down. 'I may not drop the illusion, but that doesn't mean I have to keep up the act.'

**'It's about damn time you stopped acting the part of an idiot Kit. Why you ever started is beyond me.'**

'Think about it, if they knew how strong I was back then, what do you think they would have done?'

**'Left you the hell alone.'**

'They would have tried harder. The stronger I am, the bigger the threat they see me as. The only reason I'm going to show them now is because it would take a jonin or higher ninja to get the drop on me. Why would you think they'd leave me alone?'

**'If they truly believed that you are me, then why would they attack you and give you even more reason to want to destroy them? Even if they thought you were merely biding your time, they would be kissing ass to try to change your mind and they would know that, if you were me, they couldn't kill you if they wanted to.'**

'People are ignorant. They'll feel better as long as someone is punished.' He threw the towel into a basket by the door and flopped on to his bed. He placed his arm behind his head and closed his eyes. Once again he found himself within the confines of his mind. Over the years things had changed, instead of the sewer it had been, it was now woodlands, the walls of the tunnels were formed from tree trunks. He walked slowly through the tunnel, stopping at the second turn off. On the ground in front of the door laid several of the seal tags, but there were still five still on the door. He placed his left hand on one of the remaining tags and the kanji's glow started to brighten, but then disappeared. At the same time, his hand disappeared as well and the tag fell to the ground to join the others. "Only a few more, and then I'll find out what's behind this door."

He continued his trek down the tunnel and stood before Kyuubi's cage, waiting for her to appear. **"Are you sure you should open that door Kit? If you are right about it being a repressed memory, than there's probably a good reason for it being so. It could be why you don't remember most of the beatings you've had, or what happened the night I was sealed, the possibilities are endless, and a large few involve your mother."**

"I can't run from my past, and I'm not naïve enough to try. It could show my mother or Ojii-san trying to strangle me as a baby, or my father trying to stab me with a kunai before he died. Like you said, it could be anything, but I won't know till I open it. Whatever is in there, I'm going to have to face sooner or later, the first seal fell off on its own remember."

**"I remember, I just want to make sure you're ready for the possible mental and emotional damage whatever you see in there could inflict."**

"You have nothing to worry about Kyuubi. I'll face whatever's in there, and I'll go on like I always have."

**'That's what I'm afraid of. He's spent years behind his mask, unwilling, or maybe even unable to show his true emotions, if things continue the way the have, they'll be gone. I have a feeling whatever is behind that door will decide the direction his life will take.'**

"Have you been able to determine the equivalent of my chakra to your yokai?"

**"I believe so. For the amount you'll need, I'd said roughly your whole arm of chakra to your whole hand coated in yokai."**

"It's a lot more potent than I thought."

**"You will not be trying tonight. You've already used two arm's worth of chakra, another and it will leave you almost completely drained. Even with me helping to restore the chakra, you'd be out for at least a day, and by then it would be worthless."**

"Alright, I'll check the amount tomorrow after class and if any adjustments need to be made, I'd say we'll have the correct balance by the end of the week."

Naruto heard some snickering within the darkness of the cage. **"Provided you don't over do it like you usually do. I want you to relax tonight, that means no training understand?"**

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yes Kaa-san." After he said it, neither noticed the other stiffen for a moment before Naruto faded from his mindscape. As soon as he opened his eyes, he sat up and cut off the mental link to Kyuubi. 'Why did I say that? Sure I was being sarcastic, but what if she takes it as an insult and decides to ignore me like everyone else does.' He looked down sadly. 'It's not like she'd ever think of me like that anyway. I mean I'm human, why would she care about me like that.'

Inside her cell, Kyuubi was having similar thoughts. **'I know he didn't mean what he said, but I kind of wish he had. He's the closest thing I've ever had to a kit of my own. But he'd never see me like that, and even if he did, he'd probably be too afraid that I'd get upset if he told me. Would he even want a mother since his abandoned him?'**

--

Next Morning:

After doing his morning routine of going to the bathroom, eating, taking a shower, brushing his teeth, and forming his chakra arm and genjutsu adjusted to his new found height, Naruto went to his closest and stuck said arm towards it. The image of the closet shimmered and then, as though formed by heat, it fazed away. Where there was once a mass of orange coats and a plain three-drawer dresser, there was now a three-drawer dresser with a spiral like the one on the back of his orange coat etched in the middle of the middle drawer. On top of the dresser were a kunai and a shuriken pouch, four rolls of white wraps, and a black cotton-wove sleeve with three straps of brown leather sown on, the longest started near the bottom of the top opening and circled to the other side of the opening at the same spot. The other two started near the top of the same opening and connected to the bottom strap at an angle.

Above the dresser hung a rack of shuriken, another for kunai, and, from a metal bar hanger connected to the wall, a dark gray armored vest like those worn by the Anbu. Beside the dresser was a manikin torso mounted on a pole base, on which rested a black leather sleeveless trench coat with three single scroll pouches on the left breast, six buttons, and a three-piece shoulder armor on the left shoulder. **(I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's the shoulder armor Sephiroth has, but only on one shoulder.) 'So you meant the whole act, not just the stupid part. I don't think you've even been tempted to wear that since you bought it.'**

'I'm just hoping it fits, who knows how much I've grown in eights months.'

**'Did you place the seal on everything like I told you?'**

Naruto let out an exasperated sigh. 'Yes.'

**'Then you have nothing to worry about. That seal will adapt the article of clothing to your body. All you do is put a little chakra into the seal and it will do the rest.'**

'How do you know everything you've shown me?'

**'Kit please, I've been around for hundreds of thousands years, what did you think I did with my time?'**

'You mean besides being a walking natural disaster?' He heard her chuckle slightly and smiled. 'I figured you just slept a lot.'

Kyuubi snorted. **'Only you would consider sleeping a reasonable way to pass a large quantity of time, though I do admit to sleeping a century away here and there. Now you had better get ready or you'll be late for class.'** He sent a pulse of chakra into his closet, activating all of the seals and then went into the middle drawer. He pulled out a fishnet T-shirt, and a pair of dark blue pants that he wrapped from the middle of his shin to his ankle and attached his shuriken and kunai pouches. He then slipped his real arm into the detached sleeve, the straps going over and under his shoulder and across his chest. Over this went the Anbu armor and then finally the coat with the bottom four buttons holding it closed.

He walked away from the closet while reapplying the genjutsu and he patted the three scroll pockets. 'Four extra kunai pouches, same for shuriken, a hundred-sixty feet of ninja wire, a hundred yards of rope, a tent, three more scrolls with enough food to feed a family for a month, and a fourth scroll for cooking equipment. Sealing scrolls kick ass!' Seeing as it was nearly seven, Naruto left his apartment and started for the academy via the rooftops. When he arrived, there was only one other student, but Naruto didn't pay him any mind as the other person wouldn't him.

Before Naruto walked in to the classroom he used his genjutsu to hide his whisker marks, Iruka looked up from his desk and his face paled. "Yon… Yondaime-sama?"

A fox like grin spread across his face as the whisker mark slowly came into view. "You can see why she asked if I was related to him."

Iruka put his right hand to his chest as he tried to catch his breath. "Naruto are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Naruto didn't say anything, he just stood there with a smile as he saw Iruka give him a once over. "Dear Kami it's a miracle, you're not wearing orange! And look you even got taller!" Iruka had been hoping to get a rise out of the blonde, but was surprised when the smile stayed in place.

"Yeah, I decided it was time to stop acting the part of the idiot, and turns out that because of my technique, I had grown without noticing it. Everything you see is what I look like, minus the scars and arm."

Iruka smiled. "I have to say, your clothing looks a lot like a Special Jonin I know."

"Hmm, short purple hair tied in a ponytail similar to yours', tan trench coat, fishnet shirt, brownish-orange skirt, and scares the hell out of almost everyone she meets?"

"Yeah, that her, you know her?"

"Nope, but I've seen her around town before. Had dinner with her once at this Dango place, but she didn't know it was me"

Iruka couldn't help but laugh. "Oh how cute little Naruto first date, and he had a thing for older woman. All joking aside, how did you manage for her not to know it was you?"

An evil smile appeared on his face, one Iruka knew all to well. "The same way you didn't know I was sitting next to you on your first date with Ayame-nee-chan."

Iruka's tan face paled again, but made the blush stand out of his features. "You didn't tell Teuchi did you?"

"Didn't have to, he already knew. In fact he was the one who asked me to follow the two of you, even gave me money for the meal. I told him I would, but that he didn't have to worry since it was you. Afterwards I told him what happened, and joked about if the two of you got married I might be able to get some free ramen." He saw that Iruka's blush now rivaled Hinata's.

**'I seem to remember him also saying he'd prefer you as a son-in-law over any of the males that have tried to court her.'**

'Yeah, but he likes Iruka-sensei, when he go to the stand, I'm usually with him, and when I am, Teuchi-ojii-san makes a lot of money, usually Iruka-sensei's.' "Since then, he's hasn't asked me to spy on you guys, I guess he trust you." Naruto looked over at the clock. "The first few students should start coming in soon, better go sit down."

"So how should we explain you're sudden changes to the class, not to mention what they saw yesterday."

"Don't." He looked at Naruto back as the blond walked to the back of the room and sat in the last row, with his chair leaned back against the wall, and closed his eyes. After a few moments, he heard the door open, several chairs being pulled out, and felt the stares, but paid them no mind until he heard the chair beside him moved.

"Good morning Uzumaki-san. I would recommend you not sit like that much longer, I saw Inuzuka-san not far behind me on my way in."

Naruto immediately put all four of the chair's legs on the ground and smiled at the boy next to him in the sunglasses and coat. "Thanks for the heads up Aburame-san, and please, call me Naruto."

"Very well, my name is Shino. Excuse me if I inquire something you do not wish to speak about, but what has caused such dramatic changes to you?"

"It's alright, the truth is that I've had something similar to a henge on for a while, this is the real me more or less, but you would have seen that yesterday, I'd prefer not to talk about that though. Anyway, I got tired of pretending to be someone I'm not so I decided to stop."

"I see, my insects told me they had smelt excess chakra around you, however I could not sense it, are you able to suppress your chakra?"

"I guess, I was told I might be doing it subconsciously since I've never learned how to."

"I only have one more question, why sit here when you could easily sit anywhere else?"

"Aside from the fact that I'd be badger relentlessly, I knew you of all people would appreciate how much work goes into being someone you're not."

Naruto was the only one who saw a grin on Shino. "So you noticed."

"Yes, and though I don't mind that I got in trouble for most of them, did you have to use such a high grade adhesive in the teacher's lounge? It took forever to clean up that mess, not to mention having to get a few genin who were on a D-rank mission unstuck." Shino's grin only widened in response. Naruto had a matching grin as he shook his head and turned towards the front where Iruka stood while the other students whispered.

"Now class, in regards to yesterday's sparring mishap. I don't want any of you hounding Naruto about what you saw, everyone is entitled to secrets, and if I catch any of you doing so, there will be consequences."

A boy with a dog on his head snorted. "Not like we could anyway, the dope didn't even show up. And who's the new guy up by Shino?"

"Are all Inuzuka as inept as you when it comes to recognizing a person scent Kiba? If they are I don't see how they became Konoha's tracking specialists over clans like the Aburame and Hyuga." The voice everyone knew had them looking around for the source, only for their eyes to land on the 'new guy'.

"So you're hiding behind a new disguise dope, trying to make yourself look cool?"

"You're welcome to try to dispel it dog-breath, you all are, you can all try at the same time if you want, it doesn't matter to me."

"Then why are you using it?"

Naruto looked at the speaker, a fangirl from the front row. "Like Iruka-sensei said, we all have our secrets, some just hide them better than most. So dog-breath, what are you waiting for, try and dispel it." Naruto watched as Kiba put his hands into the seal, along with almost everyone in the class, only Sasuke, Hinata, Shino, and Shikamaru didn't, the last because he was sleeping. They all stared intently as they muttered the word 'Kai' and a massive pulse of chakra flowed throughout the room… and Naruto just sat there. Nothing had changed about his appearance in the slightest. "You finished, cause I think Iruka-sensei's getting impatient."

Sure enough Iruka was standing at the front of the room, his head looking about ready to explode. "Thank you Naruto, now if that quite enough let start today's lesson."


	3. Chapter 3

The week went by fast and found Naruto standing in front of the Hokage. "Hello Naruto, what can I do for you today?"

"It concerns what we talked about earlier this week." Sarutobi held up his hand to signal Naruto to wait, before running through a sequence of hand seals and coating the office walls with his chakra. After the chakra enveloped the whole room, he motioned for Naruto to continue. "Not really sure that was necessary Ojii-san, but whatever, I figured out what I have to do to mold chakra properly again, and I'm going to need your help more than I realized."

"Really, why's that?"

"Well for starters, you can mold chakra properly, I can't write with my left hand, and even if I could, I'm probably going to be a little lightheaded."

"So I'm basically going to do everything? I don't have a problem with that, but you still haven't told me what you have planned, and I'd like to know why you'll be lightheaded."

"Written seals on my body in the form of each hand sign's character written with my blood endowed with an equal amount of my chakra and Kyuubi's yokai. The reason I'll be lightheaded is because the chakra and yokai will make the blood dry faster than it normally would, so I may have to give more."

"Couldn't we just use ink?"

"Unfortunately no, Kyuubi's yokai destroys any foreign substance in my body before my own immune system can start to work. What I need you to do after writing each is to seal it with the corresponding hand sign. This will make it so when I push chakra into the characters, they'll mold it the right way. So, are you willing to help?"

"Yes, but I'd like to do it as quickly as possible, not only so you don't lose too much blood, but also because I still have all this damn paperwork to do." He sent such a heated glared at the pile of papers that Naruto was surprised it didn't burst into flames, and chuckled. Naruto pushed up his sleeve and tucked it inside of his trench coat.

"Sounds good Ojii-an." Naruto pulled out a scroll from his kunai pouch and from it he unsealed a large ink well and a brush, the latter of which he handed to the Sandaime. Taking out a kunai, he cut his forearm and held it over the opening of the ink well while clenching and unclenching his hand to speed up the flow of blood. When the blood stopped, the ink well was about a quarter of the way full. 'Okay Kyuubi, it's time.' He got a mental nod and a red aura appeared around his right hand, while his left arm showed itself for what it was. He placed both hands at the opening of the ink well and both started to drain into the blood, the blue faster than the red. As soon as both were gone, the Sandaime grabbed the ink well and started his task.

Throughout the process, Naruto was mostly out of it due to the amount of blood he had lost, but he could feel when each of the characters were sealed, so after close to five minutes, you can imagine his surprise when he felt a thirteenth character sealed. "There we go, all done and you didn't even need to give any more blood, but it was close, the amount that's left over is getting crusty." Naruto tried to shift in his seat, but fell forward and Sarutobi pushed him back up straight. "You should just rest for now, you gave a lot of blood and it will take a little while before you're well enough to get up."

Naruto's face was a little pale, but his eyes hadn't lost any of their brightness. "What was that last one Ojii-san? There are only twelve hand signs."

The Sandaime smiled. "Well Naruto, while I was doing the others, I thought about what you told Iruka and I and realized that even with these seals, you wouldn't be able to use the normal Bunshin because your chakra reserves are so high, so I placed another character that represented the single hand seal for an advanced version of Bunshin called Kage Bunshin."

"If it's an advanced version of Bunshin, why not get rid of the normal one and teach it to Academy students?"

"It's a Kinjutsu." Naruto's eyes got wide and he stared at the Sandaime in shock, to which the old man laughed. "Don't worry, I wouldn't have done what I did if it were dangerous. The reason it's a Kinjutsu is because these clones aren't illusions, they're solid and your chakra is split between every clone evenly, something you have in spades, unless you want it otherwise. It's also because of the strain they put on the user's mind, but only if used in large quantities."

"I don't understand, why would there be strain on the user?"

"Well, because when they are dispelled, dispelled mind you, not destroyed, they send everything they learned during their 'life' back to the original, but if too many are used, the strain could be so much that the user could become comatose."

"So they're solid clones, that can send information back if they're dispelled?" He got a nod from the Sandaime. "So they could be used for… I don't know… doing paperwork?"

"Yea…" Sarutobi slapped his hand against his face. "How didn't I think of that before? I knew giving you this jutsu was a good idea, not only did it solve your Bunshin problem, but gave me the ultimate weapon to defeating the terror known as paperwork!" The Sandaime started to cackle evilly as he made a cross with both of his pointer and index fingers. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." In a small cloud of smoke there were five more of the aged Hokage, which immediately started to tear through the stacks of papers, pens in hand. When he turned back to Naruto, he was looking at the seals on his bicep. There were three bands of four, the top being: Bunta **(Pig)**, Hebi **(Snake)**, Tora **(Tiger)**, and Ohitsuji **(Ram)**, The second being: Nezumi **(Rat)**, Uma **(Horse)**, Ryuu **(Dragon)**, and Tori **(Bird)**, the third being: Inu **(Dog)**, Usagi **(Rabbit)**, Oushi **(Ox)**, and Saru **(Monkey)**, below all of which was a single character, Juuji** (Cross)**.

Naruto pushed a small amount of chakra into three seals one at a time and they glowed blue for a second before he was gone and in his place was one of the Sandaime's clones, who was looking around confused. "Thanks Ojii-san, for everything. They work perfectly, so now all I have to do is get use to using them without looking at my arm and I'll be set. I'm going to go get started Ojii-san, Genin Exam's coming up soon after all."

"Alright, but don't over do it, your body won't replace all that blood for a few more hours, and good luck with the exams."

"You don't have to worry about that Ojii-san, she'll find someway to stop me if I'm pushing myself too hard, she always does."

Sarutobi chuckled. "At least one of you know when to call it quits."

The following month went quickly and it was time for the Genin Exams, and in the time since he learned about his parents, he had moved up in the standings of the class, not much, but he was no long the dead last. Also in that time, he had removed another three of the seal tags from the door in his mind, and it seemed that a new daily activity was taken up by most of the class, trying to dispel Naruto's genjutsu. Naruto sighed as he walked to his seat beside Shino when he felt another massive pulse of chakra tear though the room. There was another pulse when he sat down, followed by another every five minutes till Iruka walked into the class with a silver haired, bandana wearing chunin. Upon seeing them, the class settled down with little provocation. "Class, this is Mizuki-sensei, he's here to help with the exams today, I want all of you to give him the same respect you would me. That being said, let's get things started with the written test."

Iruka handed out the papers to one side of the class, while Mizuki did the other, the last person being Naruto. As soon as he got close to Naruto, the blond could feel the genjutsu and when the silver hair man turned around, Naruto passed his left hand over the paper, dispelling it. 'Idiot, that genjutsu was pathetic, only someone as stupid as he is would fall for it.' He then made quick work of the questions.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

In the Hokage's office, Sarutobi was standing with the jonin who were chosen, or volunteered, to be the senseis for the genin teams this year. In front of them was a crystal ball that showed the classroom. One of the jonin closest to the Hokage spoke up upon seeing a blond dispel a genjutsu over his test, she had wild black hair and ruby red eyes with darker red pupils and wore a dress of woven stripes of white cloth with a single red sleeve on the right side. "Hokage-sama shouldn't someone do something, that instructor just tried to make that student fail using genjutsu."

One of the other jonin snorted. "Who cares, it didn't work. Beside I say the guy's do everyone a favor in preventing that dem…"

The man found a kunai at his throat, which was held by a man with gravity defying gray hair, wearing a standard jonin uniform wit a mask covering the bottom half of his face and his hitai-ate tilted over his left eye, while glaring at the man with his uncovered eye. "Finish that sentence and I kill you where you stand."

"That's enough Kakashi." The man now known as Kakashi nodded his head to the old man and removed the kunai from the now smirking man's neck. "And you." The man looked towards the Hokage only to receive a glare and enough killing intent to make him drop to his knees. "If you ever refer to Naruto in such a way again, you will find yourself striped of your rank and in a cell getting a visit from Ibiki." He then focused it on everyone in the room. "And that goes for all of you as well." He received a stuttered 'Yes sir' and then like it never happened the killing intent vanished. Sarutobi smiled and said in a cheerful voice. "Good, now let get back to why we are here."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

After the written test, the students were taken out side for the weapons and Taijutsu portion of the exam. Currently they were standing in front of the target range. "Listen up class, in this part of the exam, you will be given five kunai and five shuriken, to pass you need at least ninety points. On the round targets, a bulls-eye is worth ten points, the inner ring worth five, and the outer ring worth one. There are four of these targets. On the human shaped targets, neck is fifteen points, the head ten, the chest five and anywhere else is one. There are six of these kinds of targets, two of which will be moving. All together, you could get one hundred and thirty points, but it's not likely, only having been accomplished by three people, Orochimaru of the Sannin, Kakashi Hatake, and the most recent being Itachi Uchiha. Shino Aburame, you're up first."

Nearly everyone passed, but almost everyone doing so just barely, in fact there were only four that scored over a hundred points, Shino had got 105, Hinata also gotten 105, Sakura got 102, and Sasuke had top score with 115. Naruto stepped up and Iruka was standing by with a clip broad to take down the numbers Mizuki called out. First were the round target with one positioned every twenty-five yards. Naruto took four of the kunai and threw them getting a bulls-eye on each. As they moved on the second set of targets, Naruto took a glance at Mizuki. 'At least he's not stupid enough to lie when Iruka-sensei's there to verify.' When told to begin on this set, he launched his final kunai at the furthest swinging target, and Mizuki called it a head. The first shuriken was sent at the second swinging target and was called a chest. The second shuriken, Naruto watched closely as he threw it at the furthest stationary target, he saw it hit the neck range, but was called a chest. He watched the next two hit the neck as well and were called a chest and head respectively. Naruto glared at the silver hair man. 'He's purposely trying to make me fail.' Then an evil smile appeared on his lips. 'Fine, if he wants to play, I'll play.' He held his last shuriken in his hand with his eyes closed, and if his right arm were visible, the people around him would have seen a kanji for Ohitsuji **(Ram)** glowing blue. He threw the shuriken and it hit the closest target in the neck, but it didn't stop, it cut the head clean off and did the same to the other three stationary targets.

Iruka's jaw was hanging open, along with almost everyone else who was watching. "Si…sixty points. Bringing Naruto's final score to a hundred and thirty-five points." Naruto smirked at Mizuki's shocked face and then realization that he'd have to replace the targets before the last person could go.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

In the Hokage's office, the old man and Kakashi were smirking alongside of Naruto, though they too were surprised at what he did. A man with spiky black hair and a short beard, had his mouth wide open with a cigarette threatening to fall from his lips. One of the other jonin was the first to speak. "What was that?"

It was the beard man who answered instead of the Hokage. "That was manipulation of wind chakra, but even if he does have that affinity, he should be able to use it with basic shuriken, or at all for that matter. The only person in this village that could train him in wind manipulation that I know of is me, and I've never meet the kid."

The female jonin for earlier spoke up soon after he finished. "This kid's just full of surprises, spotting and dispelling a genjutsu when his file says it's his worst subject, being able to use his elemental affinity to such a degree without being trained, and getting five points over the supposedly highest score possible. Makes a person wonder what he's going to do next." Everyone else in the room couldn't help but nod.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

For the Taijutsu test, students had to go up against Mizuki. The rules were simple, still within the ring and Taijutsu only. The longer a student stayed in the ring, the better the score, if a student was able to knock Mizuki out of the ring, they got full score, and were rewarded extra points depending on how long it took them to do so. Naruto stood in line waiting for his turn while watching the students lose one by one, at least till it was Sasuke's turn. After a few exchanges, Naruto saw Mizuki purposely leave himself open for an attack that knocked him out of the ring. Iruka wrote down Sasuke's score on the clip broad. "Well done Sasuke, Naruto, you're up."

Naruto walked into the ring and when Iruka called for the match to begin, Mizuki shot towards him with full intent to end it quickly. Naruto saw that there was no way for Mizuki to slow down enough to avoid an attack and reared back his left arm. Mizuki saw this and crossed his arms in front of himself for protection, and when Naruto's hand made contact, there was a slight cracking sound as Mizuki went flying out of the ring. Not even waiting for Iruka to say anything, Naruto walked out of the ring.

There went back inside for the Genjutsu and Ninjutsu portions of the exam. Genjutsu was just dispelling one and using henge, while the Ninjutsu was Kawarimi and Bunshin. One by one the students left the room to be tested away from the eyes of the others, so they wouldn't know what they were up against. Iruka came and got Naruto when it was his turn and they went into an empty room except for them and Mizuki. "Okay Naruto, you have to dispel a genjutsu and use henge, but you don't have to worry about it if you fail to dispel the genjutsu, it will only put you to sleep for a short time." Iruka nodded to Mizuki and turned back to Naruto while the silver haired man started making hand seals. Iruka and Mizuki disappeared and then Kyuubi appeared before him with her claws aimed to kill him and hatred in her eyes. Naruto looked straight into her eyes knowing it wasn't real and let out a blast of chakra enough to dispel the illusion, knock both chunin off their feet, and to be felt at the Hokage tower.

Naruto walked over to Mizuki, who was still on the ground, but looking up at Naruto. "A piece of advice _sensei_ that technique doesn't work on a person who has lived through worse."

Mizuki smirked. "I know it worked on you."

"You misunderstand my meaning. True it may work on them, but what they see won't effect them." Naruto walked over to Iruka and helped him to his feet. "So I just have to use henge?"

The shaky Iruka nodded and Naruto stepped back from him. Naruto's form started to shift and he grew a little taller, his eyes becoming thinner but staying their blue color, his hair growing longer and slightly shaggier, but staying its sun kissed blond color and mostly covering a leaf hitai-ate on his forehead, and he lost the whisker marks. His black combat boots turned into dark blue sandals, while his pants stayed the same. His muscle shirt turned into a long-sleeved blue shirt with bands at the wrists and below the elbows and his Anbu armor turned into a green jonin vest, while his trench coat lost its shoulder armor and grew sleeves that went to just above the elbows, before turning white with red flames at the bottom and the kanji for 'Yondaime Hokage' in red on the back. Around his neck was a thin cord with eight stripes of metal hanging from the front, in his left hand was a three-pronged kunai with seals on the handle, his middle finger through the ring with his hand raised as if in a greeting, and he had a large smile on his face with his eyes almost completely shut.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

In the Hokage's office, the red-eyed woman was again glaring at the image of Mizuki. "Hokage-sama, this is getting out of hand, that wasn't Nehan Shouja no jutsu **(Temple of Nirvana Technique)**, if I'm not mistaken that was Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu **(Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique)**."

"Indeed it is, but Naruto dispelled it quickly so it has caused no harm and makes me unable to do anything. He also seems to know the technique, or at least know of it." The Sandaime smiled at Naruto's choice of henge. "He did quite well at taking the form of my successor, don't you agree Kakashi?"

"Yes, from the special kunai, right down to the way he use to smile, it's almost frightening how accurate it is." 'And even more so how similar the two of them look.'

"Sir what was that technique the boy did? I know it wasn't a henge, but I've never heard of anything even remotely similar to what I just saw."

"He hasn't named it because nothing seems to fit it. From what he told me, in order to keep it's form he needs to keep a constant picture of what he wishes for it to look like, and as long as he does it will stay up till either he run out of chakra, becomes unconscious, or wants in down. Oh and that it's both nearly impossible to detect unless the person knows what they're looking for and that it's extremely hard to dispel."

Another female jonin snorted. "Like an Academy student could make a jutsu like that, the first part maybe, but making unable to be detected or dispel come on."

The Hokage caught the speaker in an unwavering stare. "He's been running around this village for five years with it on constantly, and no one noticed, myself included, till last month when he was knocked unconscious protecting his classmates from a Katon Jutsu used in a spar. So either what he told me is the truth, or the quality of our ninja is severely lacking." The jonin bowed her head.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Well done Naruto, now all that's left is to use Kawarimi and create three Bunshin and you pass." Naruto nodded and channeled chakra though three seals on his arm, though neither of the chunin knew that, and switched places with a chair at the other side of the room. "And now the Bunshin." Again he nodded and he channeled a moderate amount of chakra into the kanji for Juuji** (Cross)**. He was shrouded in smoke and when it clear there were ten Narutos standing in the room. Iruka smiled widely. "Congratulations, you pass." He pulled out a scroll from his kunai pouch and unsealed a hitai-ate, which he handed to Naruto. "Your free to go for today, but come back in a week for team placements."

When Naruto walked outside, he felt a chakra signature coming towards him, but could sense any malicious intent towards him, so he ignored it, at least until he felt an arm being draped over his shoulder. "Hey there kid, you wouldn't happen to be Naruto Uzumaki would you?"

He turned to come face to face with a woman with purple hair in a spiky ponytail, murky brown eyes, and a smile on her face. From what he could see, she wore a wire mesh shirt under a tan trench coat and had a wood craving hanging around her neck. Her smile widened when she saw he didn't look away from her face. "And you would be?"

"Like you don't know, from what an _old_ friend of mine tells me, you got a dinner with me under a false name and appearance."

Naruto turned his head and glared at the Academy. "Damn Iruka-sensei, that's the last time I tell him anything, and next time I'll be sure to eat him into bankruptcy."

The woman looked at him confused. "Who the hell is Iruka?"

Now even Naruto looked confused. "But he was the only one I told, unless… Oh damn you, you senile old monkey! I know you're watching with this year's Jonin senseis, and I just got one thing to say! Top drawer, left side, under the Bingo book, Icha Icha volume one golden edition signed by the author!"

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

In the Hokage's office, Sarutobi was sweating, even though it felt like was negative ten degrees. The men were giving him looks of awe and pity, while the women were sending him icy glares. In movement unlikely to be seen by the Sharingan, he had the book in hand and was bolting for the window, cursing the blond haired boy who had give away his secret. Unfortunately for him, they had cut off his intend escape route and when they went to grab the book, he used Kawarimi to switch places with the jonin who was going to call Naruto a demon earlier. In their rage, they didn't notice the switch and beat the poor man senseless, only to realize what they'd done and return to glaring at the Sandaime, though by now he had re-hidden his book in a new location. "Well then, now that you gotten that out of your systems, let's talk teams. Before that though, I would like to say once again that if I find certain placements to be ill fitting, I will deny it. Since I know that he will be the most fought over student, Sasuke Uchiha, due to his potential ability to unlock the Sharingan, will be placed with Kakashi, as he is the only person able to teach him the uses and abilities of the Doujutsu." Most of the other jonin grumbled and left saying it didn't matter who they got, leaving the Hokage and three Jonin. "Now any specific requests?"

At once, all three people stepped forward. "Naruto Uzumaki." The three were Kakashi, the red-eyed woman, and the bearded smoker. Sarutobi smiled at this.

"Well since you are all interested in him, give me reason why he should be placed with you. Kurenai, would you like to go first?"

The red-eyed woman nodded. "From what I've seen today, he has great potential at Genjutsu and would become masterful, if not extraordinary, under the teachings of myself or another Genjutsu master."

"Asuma?"

The breaded man took a drag from his cigarette. "As I said before, I'm the only one we know of that is able to teach him in wind manipulation, and though he is capable of using it, with proper training he could very well rival elite ninja from Suna in the art."

"And you Kakashi?"

"Because of his large chakra reserves, I believe he'd be better suited with a sensei that could teach him how to put it to good use. Not to say that Kurenai's or Asuma's fields are useless, but from what I saw of his Taijutsu match, he isn't one to sit idle like he would if he focused on Genjutsu, and while his long range capabilities would increase with wind manipulation training, his single punch against the chunin suggests that he prefers close range, and with Ninjutsu that are both powerful and effective, he could become a juggernaut on the battlefield without relying on his tenant."

Sarutobi rubbed his chin in thought. "You all bring up excellent points, but I will need to think more on this, depending on how the rest of your three teams turn out, I will make my decision." After Kurenai and Asuma picking two genin and Kakashi one the teams were, Kakashi with Sasuke and Sakura, Kurenai with Shino and Hinata, and Asuma with Shikamaru and Ino. The Sandaime sighed as he looked over the profiles and recommendations for teammates the Chunin sensei had sent for the two members of each team. "While I don't believe it wise to put him on the same team as Sasuke due to the events of last month, and even less so with a member of Sasuke's fanclub on the same team, Naruto would be the best off with Kakashi's team. Kiba Inuzuka would be best suited for Kurenai's team, as it is almost already built for tracking. Asuma's team would be best for an information gathering squad, and while Naruto could provide the muscle for the team, we cannot overlook that the previous InoShikaCho squad had trained their children to work together and it would be detrimental to put them on separate teams." Through upset about not getting Naruto, Kurenai and Asuma couldn't help but agree with the old man's reasoning. "Now that your teams are settled, the remaining students will be divvied out to the jonin who were only interested in training the 'Last' Uchiha."

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**A/N: That's it for this chapter, I know that I left off with Anko and Naruto, but that's for next chapter, along with meeting the team placements. ****In case you were wondering how I came up with the scores for Shino, Hinata, Sakura, and Sasuke in the weapons test here it is.**

**Shino- 4 bulls-eyes, 3 necks, a head, 2 chests (40+45+10+10105)**

**Hinata- 4 bulls-eyes, 2 necks, 3 heads, a chest (40+30+30+5105)**

**Sakura- 2 bulls-eyes, an inner ring, an outer ring, 4 necks, a head, a chest (20+5+1+60+10+5101)**

**Sasuke- 4 bulls-eyes, 4 necks, a head, a chest (40+60+10+5115)**


	4. Chapter 4

Anko looked on amused as Naruto shouted into the air, and as soon as he stopped, they both felt a sudden drop in temperature and could feel the massive killing intent coming from the Hokage Tower and neither could keep a smirk off their faces. "You got some balls for ratting out the Hokage like that gaki, for that I'll overlook the fact you tricked me." He nodded quietly, and her smirk turned to a full-blown smile. "But that doesn't get you off the hook. For tricking me, you have to pay for dinner."

"Alright, I'm assuming you have a place in mind."

Her smile faltered, having not expected him to agree so easily, but a smirk quickly found its way onto her face. "Damn right I do."

"Lead the way Hime." Anko turned to hide the blush that now shown on her cheeks, something Naruto noticed but didn't mention, and headed off in towards the village's north wall. They eventually arrived at a small dango stand and Anko made her way inside with Naruto just behind her.

When the man behind the counter saw Naruto he snarled. "I refuse to serve that _thing_, it's bad enough I have to serve that traitorous bitch." Though the last part was mumbled to himself, Naruto heard it as clear as a bell.

Naruto closed his eyes and Anko frowned. 'So much for that ballsy attitude he had before, probably was just because the Hokage wasn't there.' Anko opened her mouth to say as much, but was stopped short by Naruto's eyes flashing open.

His crystal blue eyes had taken on an icy blue glow and though he wasn't projecting any killing intent, she saw the man shudder and felt a chill crawl up even her spine. "You seem to be of a mind that you have a choice in the matter." The blond pointed at the hitai-ate tied around his forehead. "You see this, this marks me as a shinobi of Konoha, and in accordance to the law put in place by the Shodaime Hokage, _all_ shops are required to serve ninja of the village, despite any personal grievances between the ninja and proprietor. The refusal to do so will result in the loss of the right to sell in Konoha, and a heavy fine that will be given to said ninja as reparation. Are you still going to refuse me service?" The man had long ago turned pale and shook his head no, all at once the tension in the room disappeared and Naruto's eyes became cheerful again as he smiled. "Good, we'll need two platters of dango and a bottle of sake, and keep them coming." The man nodded furiously and went to make the order.

They sat down at a booth as they waited for their order, and Anko kept giving him curious glances, which he didn't react to, until she couldn't hold it in anymore. "I have to admit, I thought you were going to wuss out and leave, but then you did that eye thing and rattle off information on a nearly hundred year old law they don't cover in the academy, and than you do a complete one-eighty once you get the point across, I got say gaki I'm impressed. Where'd you learn all that law shit anyway, and what was with your eyes?"

Naruto shrugged. "You'd be surprised what you read when you basically locked in the Hokage's office for an entire day every year. I've memorized every law ever passed by the Shodaime, Nidaime, and Ojii-san, and almost all the ones the Yondaime passed in his short term in office."

"So then you know about the law the Sandaime passed when he was reinstated."

"Yes, but I met her before I read about it." He saw that Anko was a little surprised. "Yes, I said her. As for the eyes, some chakra mixed with a very small amount of malice, gets the point across without producing killing intent."

"Malice huh, from what I heard about you, you're almost constantly smiling, but then again it was the same person that said you only wore an orange jumpsuit. So either they were lying, or you're under an illusion again."

"This is my true appearance more or less, but you heard right, I made myself out to be an orange wearing, happy-go-lucky, idiot, and I couldn't be happier. I was able to fool a village of ninja that I was exactly that for almost six years, it was going great until that damn Uchiha fucked it up by trying to fry the whole class with a fireball."

"He almost killed your class and he was still allowed to take the genin exam? Has that old man lost it?"

Naruto shrugged. "Ojii-san couldn't prevent him from taking it. The council kisses the Uchiha's ass because he could potentially unlock the Sharingan, and since he's was still considered a civilian at the time, his punishment was left to them. If he does that now as a genin, then Ojii-san could remove his ninja status and get him locked up since he's consider an adult the moment he donned the hitai-ate."

Anko smirked at his comment. "So you think that just by putting on that hitai-ate makes you a grown up huh?"

Naruto smiled, but shook his head. "I grew up a long time ago, people just have to recognize it now. But I never said it made someone an adult, I said they're considered adults in the eyes of the village. Ninja, no matter their age, are given the same rights and consequences as an adult."

The owner brought out the order and quickly left grumbling under his breath, and Anko smirked at the two sake saucers. "In that case, have a drink." She poured sake into both saucers and slid one across to him.

Without hesitation, he picked it up and downed the contents, giving a barely visible wince at the taste. "It's bitterer than I thought it'd be."

Anko smirked turned to an evil smile. "So you're giving up?"

A matching smile appeared on Naruto's face. "No way in hell."

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**Eight PM: Outside Hokage Tower**

Sarutobi stood at his balcony, overlooking an area filled with chunin, and several jonin. "Less than an hour ago, someone snuck into this very tower and stole the Scroll of Sealing. As you know, that scroll is filled with Kinjutsu that could be used to destroy our village, as such we must retrieve it. It is unclear who, or rather what has taken the scroll, all that is known is that they had a tiger-like appearance. Find and capture them, we need them alive to determine if they're working alone or for someone else."

--------------------------

Two Chunin walk into the dango stand, **(Sounds like the start of a bad joke) **they caught sight of Naruto and pulled out two kunai each. Chunin 1 walked closer to the table. "We go looking for the culprit, and we find the demon, we should have known it was behind the theft. Tell us where the scroll is, and we'll see if we can't get you a quick execution."

Naruto didn't even look away from a pink-cheeked Anko as they both downed another saucer of sake, but the owner did. "As much as I hate to say it, these two have been here for the past several hours having a drinking contest."

Anko slammed her saucer on to the table. "You lied to me, this can't be your first time drinking or you'd have passed out by now!"

Naruto set his down. "I didn't lie, it's just that the alcohol is burned out of my system so fast I'd have to drink a barrel just to get buzzed." He turned his head towards the two chunin. "Now, what's this about a stolen scroll?"

The second chunin glared at him. "I don't see how it's any of your business demon."

Naruto's eyes once again took on an icy blue glow, causing the chunin to shake uncontrollably. "I'm a shinobi of Konoha, the same as you, so tell us what happened."

Chunin 1 stumbled backwards and fell on his ass. "Som…someone stole the Scroll of Sealing an hour ago. They supposedly have a tiger-like appearance, but it could have been a henge to throw people off. The guards the thief killed were Anbu, so it's suspected they're High Jonin, or Anbu level themselves." Naruto locked eyes with them and they were falling over themselves to get out the door, once they were, his eyes returned to normal.

"Then they shouldn't be that hard to find, everyone looking will be traveling in groups of two or more, Anbu out of habit, and the chunin and jonin for safety because the skill level of the one they're looking for is unknown and will be searching systematically. So we're looking for someone who's either out and about by themselves, or away from the other groups."

"That's easier said then done gaki, they're obviously have some way to hide themselves or the Hokage would have found them with that crystal ball he used earlier to look in on your class."

"He has to choose who or where to focus on, and since he doesn't know either the ball is pretty much worthless."

"How the hell do you know that gaki?"

"He's told me everything about that technique except how to activate it. Chakra sensing is our best bet to find them."

"Don't you think the others searching for them have tried that?"

"They probably did, but they knew where the scroll was held, which only a handful of people are supposed to know, and if they can get their hands of that kind of information, it's safe to say they'd know how our ninja are going to search, and the problem with chakra sensing is the range is dependant on the individual's own chakra reserves, so most jonin only have a range of two hundred yards. Ojii-san can probably sense to the wastelands of the village from his office, maybe a little further"

"Is there a point to this?"

"The point is that they would head to the last place the our ninja are going to check, which will be out of the range of anyone in the searching party's range."

"Well they're probably still searching in the residential district, so if you're right the thief will head towards the eastern wall, but after he found out about the theft, the Hokage would have increased the number of Anbu patrolling the wall, so it really wouldn't do them much good." She noticed that Naruto's eyes were closed and her eyebrow started to twitch. "Hey brat, are you even listening to me?"

"Trying not to, but can't help it. Shut up for a minute, you're distracting me." This did nothing to calm her down, but she didn't say anything. After a few seconds, she felt a small spike of chakra come from him and his face scrunched up in what she hoped was concentration, the chakra staying at a constant level of output. "There's someone's in the forest alone, out by that old shack. They're not moving very fast, but they may just be confident they won't get caught." Naruto opened his eyes and looked over at a still fuming Anko. "That's the only source outside of the village proper."

"You know there's a good chance it's just another idiot who thinks they find the scroll faster themselves, but it's the best we've got, might as well check it out." Naruto threw some money down on the table and when they got outside, they jumped up onto the rooftops. After traveling this way for several minutes, they went from rooftops to tree branches with Anko leading. "Look gaki, if this is the person we're looking for, I want you to hang back, if they were able to take out the Anbu guards, you'll be way out of your league. If it starts to look like I'll need help, give off a big blast of chakra, which should get some attention. I don't want you to jump in under any circumstance, the last thing I need is for the death of an overconfident genin coming down on my head."

Naruto snorted. "Think about who your talking to, Ojii-san may come down on you a little hard, but he knows how I am, and the council will make it look like you and the thief are heroes for ridding the village of the Kyuubi-brat. It'll most likely get assholes like the dango stand owner to stop calling you a traitorous bitch under their breath."

For a brief second, Naruto saw sadness pass across her face before becoming stoic again. "Like I give a rat's ass what they think about me."

"That may be true, but we both know it still hurts. We're both in the same boat if you think about it, only difference is they say it to my face."

Anko smirked. "You keep reacting like you did tonight at the dango stand and they'll start to think twice about that."

Naruto stop at the edge of a clearing in which a small wooden shack stood alone. "They're not far, I'd say within fifty yards."

Anko nodded. "Alright. Stay here till I'm fifteen yards away before following, that should be enough of a distance that you'll be out of harms way and still be able to tell if I'm getting in to too much trouble."

"Fine, but I think I should tell you, that the signature seems familiar, but somehow… twisted? Does that make sense?"

Anko placed her right hand on her left shoulder. "A little bit, yeah. Now remember, don't join the fight for any reason."

Naruto watched as Anko went ahead and when she was out of hearing range he whispered into the dark forest. "I'm sorry Anko, but I can't promise you that." He started after her as she instructed, but sped up when he felt a spike of chakra, and felt the earth tremble. What he came upon was Anko jumping off of a giant snake's head while the tiger equivalent of a werewolf passed it's hand through the snake's throat, making it go up in a cloud of smoke that blocked all view. Before the smoke had completely cleared, Naruto could hear the sounds of fighting and then someone hitting something wooden.

When the smoke finally cleared, Anko could be seen standing shakily in front of a tree and with the tiger man standing ten feet from her, the scroll leaning against a tree behind the beast. "How could you betray the village for Orochimaru?"

"He gave me this power." Naruto's eyes widened at the familiar voice of Mizuki. "And had the Kyuubi failed the exam like it was suppose to, I would have been able to kill two birds with one stone. I still get to, but not the one I had expected, Orochimaru-sama told me that should I get the chance to kill you to do so."

"I guess I'm doing something right if he thinks I'm a big enough threat to have someone kill me."

Mizuki laughed. "I think it's more the fact that you've outlived you're usefulness and are just a loose end to be tied up. Which is something I'll gladly do because Orochimaru-sama will reward me greatly for it." In the blink of an eye, he had her pinned against the tree by her throat and held off the ground. "But maybe I should have some fun with you first." Anko's hands were gripping his wrist, trying to pry it off her neck, but when she heard this, she let go with one hand, with a flick of her wrist, a kunai shot into her hand from her sleeve. She stabbed it into his left bicep, the furthest she could reach. He let out a cry of pain, but instead of letting go like she had hoped, his grip tightened. Naruto fist clenched when he backhanded her, Naruto had been constantly releasing chakra since the snake was destroyed, but still there was no one. "You bitch! I was going to do you a favor and give you a quick, painless death, but now I think I'll watch you suffer." Mizuki poised his clawed hand to strike and Naruto rushed towards them, but he wasn't fast enough to get there before Mizuki's claws ripped into Anko's side. Blood poured from the wound, but she didn't scream out. Naruto slugged Mizuki in the jaw with his left hand as the tiger man laughed. The blonde then grabbed her before she hit the ground and gently lowered her as Mizuki stood up. "Well if it isn't the Kyuubi, today must be my lucky day, I will fulfill both of my duties to Orochimaru-sama, as well as finally finish what the Yondaime started."

"You say you're loyal to Orochimaru, yet you wish to honor the Yondaime Hokage, a man who gave his life to protect this village?"

"It's not to honor him demon, but to prove that with this power I'm able to do what even he, the supposed strongest Kage ever, could not!"

As soon as Naruto laid her down, he stood up and turned to face Mizuki with piercing icy blue eyes. The blonde's eyes flashed red for a moment before Naruto shot towards Mizuki, his left arm drawn back. Mizuki's slashed Naruto's wrist as it neared him, but instead of causing damage, his hand passed through the blonde's arm. What he didn't expect was for Naruto's right hand to grab hold of the kunai Anko had stabbed into his arm in a reverse grip and pull it towards him, leaving a deep gash down to the middle of the forearm where he ripped the small blade from Mizuki's arm. Again the chunin screamed out in pain and his right hand instinctively grabbed on to his injured arm, but Naruto didn't wait for him to refocus on the fight, and stabbed the blade clear through the tiger man's throat. Before Mizuki even fell to the ground, Naruto was rushing back to Anko's side. He lifted up her head into his lap and shook her shoulder light. "Talk to me Anko, come on say something."

A small smile appeared on her face as she opened her eyes slightly. "I thought you said not to talk because I was annoying."

"I said you were distracting me, not because you were annoying, but because I couldn't help but listen." Naruto looked at her wound to see that it was still bleeding heavily. "I really have to get you to a hospital, that gash is still bleeding and it looks really bad."

"We can't leave the scroll or his body here, there's a empty storage scroll in my right coat pocket, you know how to use them right?" Naruto nodded and reached into her pocket, quickly pulling out the scroll he ran to the middle of the gap between the body and the scroll and marked out the seals for both. He pushed his chakra arm into the scroll, which created two whirlwinds that engulfed the two objects and pulled them into the scroll. He stuck the scroll into his pants pocket and went back to Anko. He lifted her up into his arms bridal style, her head resting against his right shoulder, and sprinted back towards the village on the ground, afraid he's aggravate the wound by leaping through the trees. He blew past an Anbu squad, not even looking back at them, but the blood trail left in his wake was more than enough to get their attention. He nearly kicked the doors off their hinges when he reached the hospital, he yelled for help, and the woman behind the front desk called for a doctor and a gurney. A nurse came running down the hall with pushing the gurney with several more and a couple of doctors following her. When she came up to him, he gently laid her down on it and then followed them through the halls to an operating room where they wouldn't allow him in.

He sat down on a bench across the hall from said room, his eyes locked on the small lit-up box above the door indicating the room was in use. After a few minutes, four Anbu came up to him, he glanced over their masks before looking back at the box, there was a Inu, a Tora, a Neko, and the leader, indicated by the white cloak, a Kuma. "Uzumaki-san, are you the one's whose chakra was felt coming from the forest to the east?" Naruto nodded. "May I know why?"

"Anko and I found the person who stole the Scroll of Sealing, he was close to the wall and we knew we couldn't let him escape with it, so she confronted him while I signaled for help."

"You did not help her?"

"She told me not to, that I'd be out of my league, but when no one showed up and he had her pinned against a tree, I jumped in. He did this to her before I could stop him, and I killed him as fast as I could so I could get her here for treatment."

"Did you recover the scroll?"

"I did, I have both it and his body sealed in a scroll."

"I'll need you to hand it over, as well as come with us to see Hokage-sama."

"I'm sorry Kuma-san, but I'm not leaving till I know she's alright, and I won't give the scroll to anyone except the Hokage."

Neko's body language said she was about to protest, but Kuma made a subtle gesture. "Very well, I shall inform him of where you are, and I'm sure he shall be here before long, however, I shall leave Inu and Neko here to ensure that any accomplice the thief may have had will not attempt to harm you or retake the scroll."

"That's not necessary Kuma-san, I am more than capable of handling myself."

"Perhaps, but I'm afraid I must insist, as you said, we can not allow them to escape with the scroll."

Naruto sighed, but nodded, not taking his eyes away from the door. Kuma made to leave, but Neko stepped in front of him and spoke in a whisper. "Sir, it's unorthodox to not only allow him to remain here, but to keep procession of the scroll."

"You would be right if he were anyone else, but not even all four of Hokages would be able to move him from here, and he is right in the fact that he should only hand the scroll over to Hokage-sama. If it's safe with anyone other than the Hokage, it's him." Neko nodded and she moved out of his way.

After he and Tora left, Neko and Inu stood on either side of Naruto as he waited for news on Anko, Naruto's left hand was constantly twitching. "I'm sure she'll be alright Uzumaki-san. Konoha has some of the best medical ninja in the world."

Naruto glanced over at Neko for a second before returning to his staring contest with the door. "I know that, but that won't matter if I didn't get her here in time, I killed the bastard as quickly as I could, but the injury was pouring blood when I got back to her."

"You don't seem concerned that you've taken a life."

"I'll worry about that later." Though he couldn't see her eyes, he could feel that they were trained on him. "I know you do not trust me Neko-san, maybe you even feel the same way as almost everyone else does, but I could care less."

"It's not that I don't trust you, nor that I believe you to be what the ignorant villagers do, but you refused the orders of a superior. That alone is enough to have you stripped of your Shinobi status, but you also refused to meet with Hokage-sama to tell him the breach has been taken care of and return the scroll."

"Would you if one of your teammates were in the an operating room?"

"If it were just myself and another, than it would be my duty to report to Hokage-sama before I check on their status, and if it weren't just us two, it would be a different situation then you are in, she isn't your teammate."

"Maybe not officially, but as far as I'm concerned every ninja who knew of the theft was on a mission to retrieve it, and as such anyone working in groups were on teams."

Neko smirked beneath her mask. "Then yes, by your reasoning she would be your teammate, but you still are obligated as a shinobi to report to Hokage-sama."

"Now Neko, as you're former commander says, 'Those who violate rules and laws are called trash, but those who don't take care of their comrades are worse than trash.'" Neko and Inu bowed as the Hokage walked up to them, but Naruto didn't move. Sarutobi looked at the blonde sadly. "Naruto I know you're worried about Anko, I am too, but I need to know what happened."

"It was Mizuki, he stole the scroll for Orochimaru, or at least that's what he told Anko. Said he was told that if he got the chance to kill her. His tiger-like appearance was due to some power Orochimaru gave him, with it he was strong enough to kill a giant snake summon. I wasn't able to stop him from doing this to her, but I made sure he won't do anything like this again. She was losing a lot of blood, so I sealed both him and the scroll and raced here, nobody's told me anything."

"Naruto, perhaps you should head home, you've had a rough day."

"I'm not going anywhere till I know she's going to be alright."

"Naruto…"

"No Ojii-san, you're not going to get me to change my mind. If I had jumped in sooner, she wouldn't be in there right now, the least I can do is be here with her."

"Alright Naruto, may I have the scroll that they're sealed into?"

"May I make one request?" The Hokage nodded. "After you confirm that it's Mizuki, destroy the body. The power he received not only twisted his body, but his chakra as well, it must never be recreated."

Inu looked between Naruto and Sarutobi. "Sir, is it possible that Mizuki did all of this because he was corrupted by this 'power'?"

The old man shook his head. "No, he would have had to search out Orochimaru, or whoever may have given it to him. Until such a time when this matter is resolved, all information about tonight's events are deemed classified, the last thing we need is to start a village wide panic, as far as anyone not involved is concerned, what went on tonight was a efficiency test of our ninja's response time to a village wide search for a security breach. Anko was hurt in a training accident, and Mizuki was discovered to be leaking the academy training program to a new Hidden village, Otogakure no Sato located in Ta no Kuni, and died during interrogation, it wouldn't be the first time. Since they have only recently come onto the scene, the council will look the other way so long as we send an ambassador to arrange an alliance with them. Is all of this understood?" He got yeses from everyone there. "Good. Kuma, you and your team round up everyone who was out looking for the scroll, I'll address them at the tower." Kuma nodded and the Anbu disappeared in puffs of smoke. Naruto pulled the scroll from his pocket and handed it to the Hokage. "I'm sorry that I can't stay Naruto, but I need to get these were they need to go." He sent a glance towards the door and then back towards Naruto. "She'll be fine Naruto, she's not one to give up, just like you."

Naruto smiled. "I know Ojii-san. I'll tell her that you stopped by."

Sarutobi smiled back at the blonde. "I appreciate it, but I'm sure it'll mean a lot more to her that you stayed." He putted a hand on Naruto's shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze before he left.

No more than ten minutes after the Hokage left, a doctor came out of the room, when Naruto saw him, the blonde walked up to him. "Are you the young man that brought her in?"

Yes, is she going to be alright?"

"She's lost a lot of blood, but we've managed to stitch up the wounds, and we're infusing blood. She should be fine, but we'll need to keep her here for a few days."

"Would it be alright if I stayed with her for tonight?"

"It's fine, they'll be moving her to regular room in a few minutes. When she wakes up, make sure she doesn't move around too much or her stitches will tear open. A nurse will come in once every hour to check on her. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to check up on my other patients." Before the doctor turned out of the hallway, three nurses came out pushing a gurney that had Anko laying on it and an IV stand from which hung an IV drip of blood that connected to her arm.


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto woke up to the doorknob of Anko's hospital room door being turned and sat up in the chair he had been sleeping in beside the bed. His genjutsu was up before the door opened to let in a woman with red eyes and wild black hair. She wore a dress that appeared to be white strips of cloth wrapped together with a single red sleeve on the right side. "You two must have really bonded after the exam yesterday to have you visit so early Uzumaki-san."

"I take it you're one of the jonin looking to take on a team, did you get Ojii-san's book?"

"Unfortunately no, he has quick reflexes for his age. I know what happened, and I want to thank you, you saved her life."

"It was nothing, accidents happen all the time during training. I'm sorry, but I have yet to learn you name kunoichi-san."

"Oh how rude of me, my name is Kurenai Yuuhi, but please just call me Kurenai."

"I understand, I prefer my given name as well. She hasn't woken up yet, but the nurses that have come to check on her say it's only a matter of time."

"I'm happy to hear that. Naruto, I was wondering if you'd mind using the transformation technique you used during the exam I'm quite interested in it and I'd like to see if what Hokage-sama said about it was true."

"Any person in particular?"

"No, anyone should do." Naruto nodded and closed his eyes for a second, when he opened them back up, his form started to morph. His hair sank into the skin as he grew about a head taller and a blue bandana covered the top of his head. His arms grew wider, his coat grew another sleeve while the other turned leather, and his coat opened and became plain. Everything underneath the coat became a simple black shirt, his steel-toed boots grew larger but otherwise remained the same, and his pants turned black. For the finishing touches, three scars appeared going diagonally on his face and his eyes became black as coal. "Would you mind removing the bandana?" He did so and she saw that the scars continued up on to his hairless head, along with scarred over screw holes and burn scars. "The details are incredible."

He held out the bandana and spoke in a gruff voice not his own. "They have to be." He motioned for her to take the bandana. She hesitantly grabbed on to the piece of cloth and was surprised at how real it felt, and even more so when Naruto let it go and it didn't disappear. "The devil's in the details."

"This is amazing, if I didn't know better, I'd swear you didn't have an illusion on yourself. I can't sense anything, and most transformations can't remain after being separated from the user." She placed a hand on the top of his head. 'I can't feel the hair I know to be there, but I can feel the texture of the skin and scars. It's also solid, with a normal transformation, a person's hand would pass through the areas that the user can't fill when they form someone or something bigger than they are.'

They both heard a bit of snickering and turned to find Anko's eyes open. "Why Nai-chan, you never told me you were so close to Ibiki." Kurenai stepped back with a blush on her face as Naruto's form revert to his normal one and Anko smile spread further. " Shame on you Naruto, you shouldn't toy with Nai-chan's feelings for Ibiki." Anko laughed as Kurenai's face turned bright red, until pain shot though her side. She winced and placed a hand against it.

"You need to take it easy Anko, or your stitches will rip open."

"I can't believe that bastard was able to do this to me, when can I get out of here?"

"A few days, you lost a lot of blood and they want to make sure your body doesn't react badly to the transfusions they had to give you. Ojii-san came by earlier while you were still sleeping."

Anko laid back in her bed. "That was nice of him I guess. So how long have you two been here?"

"I only got here a few minutes ago and since Naruto was already here and you were still asleep I asked him to show me his unique transformation technique. Speaking of which, how do you fill in the areas you're not physically able to?"

"Look in your hand." Both of the women looked at Kurenai's hand and saw that the bandana was still there, but it was light blue and semi-transparent, slowly it started to vanish. "It only lasts for a short time once I lose contact with it."

"You use chakra? I've never heard of anyone suppressing so much chakra before, I mean I was standing right in front of you and I couldn't feel anything from you."

The blond shrugged. "Not entirely sure myself. Before I forget, as far as anyone's concerned, everything that happened last night was a training exercise, and Mizuki died in interrogation for leaking teaching methods to a new village."

"Alright, but don't think I'm going to over look the fact you haven't answered my question."

"I've been here since I brought you in."

This really got both women's attention. "You haven't left once? What about the scroll and his body?"

"I gave them to Ojii-san when he stopped by, this being after refusing an order from an Anbu commander to go see him. I also ignored Ojii-san's suggestion to go home."

Kurenai looked worriedly at him, but he preferred Anko's glare to it. "Are you fucking stupid gaki?! You could have been court marshaled for that! Why the hell would you risk that, you barely even know me!"

Naruto didn't look away, nor did the expression on his face change. "Do you really have to ask? I was worried about you. I wasn't going to just leave without knowing if you were going to be alright." For a brief moment, both women caught a flicker of something in his eyes, and thought they saw five barely visible lines on his face, before both things disappeared completely. Naruto saw their shocked expressions and turned to the side. "I have to get going, there are some things I need to take care of before the team placements meeting. I'll see you than Kurenai-sensei. Anko, I hope you get better soon." He walked calmly out the door, but as soon as it was shut behind him, his pace quickened. 'I almost lost it in there, I was only barely able to save the genjutsu.' He found it somewhat odd that Kyuubi didn't comment after a few moments, but figured she was still mad about having to rid his body of all the alcohol he had consumed the night before.

This was not the case as she had simply cut the connection from her side and was sitting in her cage with a smile on her face as she watched what had happened in the hospital room. **'It looks as though the door is not the only potential** **way to bring his emotions back to him. Anko Mitarashi, how will you affect the kit's life?'**

---------------------------

Back in the hospital room, Anko was staring at the door Naruto had gone through. "He risked his shinobi career because he was worried about me? Why would he do that, it doesn't make sense."

Kurenai plopped down in the chair Naruto had previously occupied. "Actually, when you think about it, it kind of does. Due to his status, I doubt there are all that many people who spend more than a half hour with him without being ordered to, and even most of those who are neutral towards him don't make an effort to get to know him or spend time with him like you did yesterday. You are probably one of a very few people that he truly cares about, aside from Sandaime-sama and Iruka-san."

"There's no way he could feel that close to me of all people, after four hours of drinking. Sure we talked a little, but it was nothing, a few funny stories."

"That may not be enough for most people, but he's obviously perceptive of what going on around him, and just seeing and hearing the things directed towards you is enough to tell the villagers like you almost as much as they do him. He may feel close to you because you have had similar lives."

"Maybe, but there has to be something more to it than that Nai-chan, he wouldn't risk so much over that."

"It could have been something you did or said, coming from someone with a similar life may have meant more to him than if it had come from someone else. It would also explain why he reacted like he did. He was just worried about you and, let's be honest, you pretty much spat it back in his face." Anko looked away from her towards the window. "Anko, I know you don't exactly warm up to somebody easily, I mean it took almost five years for you to let me in, but he may be the only person in the village that can truly understand what you've gone through, what you're still going through. You saw the look he had in his eyes before he left didn't you?" Anko remained silent, but she nodded. "I've seen it before in your eyes when everything starts to get to be too much for you to handle by yourself, usually the two of us spend most of the night talking after you drink yourself stupid."

"Our lives are screwed up enough, but you want us to make it worse by dumping our own problems on the other?"

"No, I meant that by talking to one another, you'd both be able to vent, while taking strength from the fact that you aren't alone." Kurenai could tell that she was hesitant about it. "You don't have to and you know I'm always happy to talk if you want to, but you should consider it, not only for you but for him as well. Anyways, I have to start preparing for the test I'm going to give my potential team, and I brought you some clothes for when you get out of here since I doubt the ones you wore are in very good shape. I'll see you later Anko."

"Yeah, later Nai-chan." The red-eyed woman left after setting down a scroll on her bedside table and Anko went back to looking out of the window. 'Maybe she's right, I mean from what he told me last night, the only person he talks to on a daily basis is Kyuubi, and it's pretty much pointless talking to her about something she already knows about, and the others that are kind to him are either too busy or wouldn't understand.' She grabbed the scroll on sat up slowly. 'I have to at least apologize for going off on him.' Not long after she was dressed in her normal clothes and leaping out the window.

Seconds later a nurse came in pushing a small cart that had a few dishes on it. "Mitarashi-san, I have lunch for you." When she saw the bed was empty and the window open she got a frustrated look on her face. "I swear, she does this just to annoy us, she acts like what the doctors tell her means nothing." She sighed. 'At least she's better than that Uzumaki boy the few times he's been here, leaving after have a bone set without being put under for the procedure, I don't think even she's that crazy.'

----------------------------

After Naruto reached the street, he jumped up on the rooftops and headed into the forest towards the shack near where he had killed Mizuki. He had tried to get his mind off of what had happened in the Hospital, but he couldn't, and the fact that Kyuubi still wasn't talking to him made things worse. 'I don't understand, why was she mad that I was worried about her? I know I shouldn't have refused to do what the Anbu commander said, but Ojii-san understood, why didn't she? It's not like I didn't return the scroll.' By the time he reached the shack, his control over his chakra had become so bad the genjutsu had dropped, his chakra arm was gone, and he was leaving deep gashes in every tree he passed. He landed in the clearing that held the old shack and sat down beside it and closed his eyes. As soon as he was within his mindscape, he ran to the single door of the second passage, only two tags remained. He drowned himself in chakra and ripped the final two tags off the door.

Kyuubi for her part was so lost in thought that she didn't notice Naruto was in his mindscape till she felt the massive build up of chakra. Her claws dug into the wooden bar as she looked out through them with scared eyes when it all disappeared at once and his presence along with it. **"Kit, what have you done?"**

Naruto found himself in a small room with walls of stone and a wooden door behind him. He looked around and found… nothing, the room was empty except for him. "What the hell!" He clenched his fist and struck the wall behind him, creating a spider web of cracks that allowed what looked like sunlight to shine through. With a smirk, Naruto went to the center of the room. He spread his feet to shoulder width and crouched down a little while he brought his arm back to his side bent at a ninety-degree angle and turned slightly to the outside. "AaaaaaaahhhhhHHHHH." His body started to shake as he drew on even more of his chakra, enough to take the form of blue flames engulfing his body, and to cause the ground beneath him to crack. "**AHHH!**" He shot to full height and his arm went to full length towards the ground, his hand still clenched into a fist, as the chakra surged in all direction like a shockwave. When it collided with the walls of the room, the walls crumbled like they were made of sand, but the door stood strong against it. Naruto stood panting heavily as he looked around. He was in the Hokage's office, but there were three major things wrong, the first was that the desk was empty of papers, the Sandaime was nowhere to be seen, and he couldn't feel the presence of any hidden Anbu in the room. Not feeling anyone in the room, he walked around the desk and flopped down into the chair, propping his feet up on the desk.

Almost as soon as he did, the door opened revealing a man with a mane of blonde hair even more unruly than his own, deep blue eyes that matched his, and a long white coat with red flames along the bottom. He looked surprised to see him there, but it soon passed and a smile found its way onto the man's face. "You're earlier than I expected, by a few years in fact, but I guess I can attribute that to your mother, she never did like to wait."

"She can burn in hell for all I care, and I really hope that what you're experiencing in the Shinigami's stomach is even worse a fate than hell."

This didn't seem to affect the man before him as he kept smiling. "While I'm sure you're shock to see me, I'm sorry to say that I'm not actually here, as a price to pay for saving the village from Kyuubi, I had to give up my soul to the Shinigami, so I won't ever get the chance to know you, in this life or in the next. Simply put, what you see before you is a complex genjutsu fuinjutsu hybrid I placed on you and Tayuya designed to release when you turned sixteen, but it seems you found a way to active it early. I placed this on the two of you so that I could teach you my two original jutsu, as well as help you Naruto understand why I had to use you as the container of Kyuubi." The smile was replaced by a grim look. "You were not the only possible candidate as you may or may not think, in fact there were over a dozen, but most of them came from shinobi clans. I know that may not sound like a bad thing, but I believe that had I placed Kyuubi in one of them, their clan may use its power to attempt to seize control of the village. It is for almost the same reason I could not use a civilian child as the clans would stop at nothing to marry such a child into their family, and by extension, under their control."

The smile once again appeared. "While I have no delusion that they won't try the same with you, your mother will see to it that their plans fall through, she will want you to marry for love, not political standing, the same goes for Tayuya. I'm also sure that more than a few villagers and possibly even shinobi will not honor my wish that you be seen as the hero you are, but I know that your mother, my student Kakashi, my sensei Jiraiya, and Sandaime-sama will see to it that you're safe from enemies both inside and outside the village. Now as to why I used this to teach you my jutsu instead of leaving scrolls like other people might is because Iwa, the Uchiha clan, and Councilman Danzo would do anything to get a hold of such scrolls. My sensei knows one of the jutsu, the Rasengan, and should he visit, and is not peeping on the women's bath house, he should be able to help you learn it, but the other, the Hiraishin, you will be on your own as the seal pattern is different for each user. Not even my sensei, who is consider a seal master, could figure out the pattern needed, but I have faith in you and your sister, after all, you are my children and if you've inherited Kushina's stubbornness, I'm sure it won't take either of you long. The next time you come, I will begin teaching you my jutsu. The two of you are my legacy and I love you both and your mother very much, look after each other. Naruto I want you to know that I'm truly sorry that I had to do what I did, and I would give anything to see you grow up, going to the academy, becoming ninja, and seeing you get married to the love of your life."

Naruto stood up and walked right in front of the image of Minato, being almost eye-to-eye with him, glaring at the image. "I'll never get to say this to you face to face, so this will have to do. You and _Kaa-san_" He spat the word out like it left a bad taste in his mouth. "can go fuck yourselves, I'm no longer your son, and I want nothing to do with you or your jutsu." He walked past the Namikaze and out the door. As soon as he shut it, he summoned what chakra he had left to his right palm and slammed it against the door. A large steel wall spread from his palm and to the sidewalls of the corridor. When he removed his hand, a small panel appeared where it had been with the Kanji for lock in the center.

He slowly made his way to Kyuubi's chamber and nearly collapsed when he stepped through the doorway. Kyuubi's eyes were staring back at him with worry. **"What have you done Kit?"**

"I opened the door." He saw her eyes widen a fraction and looking at him as if urging him to continue. "I saw To… the Yondaime. He place a genjutsu fuinjutsu hybrid on Nee-san and I to teach us his two original jutsu as well as talk a bit about why he choose me. He couldn't react to what I said or anything, but I told 'him' that I wanted nothing to do with him or his jutsu and that I'm not their son before leaving and locking the door behind a wall of steel."

**"Are you sure that was wise Kit? From what you've read about the man, those two moves are incredibly powerful, power you may need further down the road."**

"I don't need his power, I'll work for my own, and if it's not enough oh well." Seeing the worry in her eyes increase he decided it was time for a change in topic. "So how come you haven't been talking to me, I've been trying to get your attention since I left the hospital, you're not still mad about the sake are you?"

**"A little, but that's not why I haven't been answering, I've just been think about a few things, like how to rework your training schedule so it won't interfere with your team meetings, of course until we know when they'll be, nothing's certain." 'Kami I hope he buys it.'**

"True, but please be a little lenient once we do, for all we know I could get a slave driver for a sensei, and they could make it worse if I'm late for a meeting because you had me work myself to exhaustion."

**"Please kit, I'm the one who normally has to tear you away from training to make sure you get back to your apartment."**

Naruto smiled. "That's true enough, so why were you so worried when I got here?"

"**Aside from the fact that after you removed the tags your presence disappeared from your mindscape, your body's suffering from chakra exhaustion outside, and need I remind you, you're in the middle of the forest out in the open."** Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. **"Luckily, you're most likely out farther than anyone not searching for you will come. You should be fine in about a day's time, plenty of time to get the photo for your Shinobi file taken, as well as restock any supplies you may need."**

"I don't really need anything, but I think I'll get a few more storage scrolls. In any case, what should we do till then?"

"**You could use some more practice with tactics, Shoji or Go?"**

"Shoji this time." A table rose out of the ground before the bars, the board and pieces in place, as well as two cushions on either side.

-------------------------

When Naruto opened his eyes, he found he was no longer in the forest, but lying in a bed, the blanket was pulled up to his neck, a wet cloth on his forehead, and only wearing his pants. He looked around the room he was in and was somewhat glad to see he wasn't in a hospital room. The room was a bit bigger than his own bedroom, the walls were painted a blue color close to that of his eyes, the blanket was burnt orange, there were a couple of photos on a dress across the room, but the light coming in from the window caused them to glare, making them hard to make out. He also noted that the rest of his clothes were piled on a chair next to one of the two doors in the room. He tried to sit up, and found his body to be stiff. He heard the doorknob start to turn and quickly put up his genjutsu, forgoing the creation of his arm, and when the door opened, it revealed one of the people he least expected, Anko, but her clothes were different than usual she was barefoot in baggy black pants and a light blue t-shirt. "It's about time you woke up gaki, you've been hogging my bed since I found your ass in the forest. You're lucky I could tell you were only suffering from chakra exhaustion, or I'd have taken you to the hospital and everyone would know your secret, and I'd prefer you not wear that while you're here." Naruto didn't say anything, but his left arm started to disappear from the fingertips, and small nearly invisible marks all over his chest and arm slowly grew darker and more defined, as well as the five on his face. Among all others, the word DEMON craved into his chest stood out the most, second only to the ones on his face and his stub of a left arm. "I honestly can't see how you put up with it Gaki, I mean I almost went totally insane when I first returned, but they didn't even try to do this kind of shit to me."

"That's because your old sensei is still walking around, I on the other hand, am the only link to Kyuubi except for the other Bijuu."

"You heard about that huh."

"Well, the snake summon was a pretty big giveaway, but your name is highly associated with his, along with Ojii-san and the other two Sannin. I should probably be going, thank you for your help, and I apologize for burdening you for however long I've been unconscious and if I did something to upset you the other day at the hospital."

"I should be the one apologizing about that, I shouldn't have gone off on you like I did. Ever since that bastard's betrayal, I haven't let many people get close, not only because off how the villagers reacted when I returned, but because of the parting gift he left me." She pulled the collar of the shirt away from her neck and tilted her head to the right showing him a circle of three tomoes. As his eyes landed on the tomoes, he could feel a malicious aura about it, but it was weak. When she covered it again, the feeling all but disappeared. "It's a Juin Jutsu and there's a nine in ten chance that the person it's used on will die. He put it on me and left me in Umi no Kuni, not caring if I lived or died. I was found a few days later by Anbu and brought back here. Ibiki interrogated me, if you can even call it that since he wasn't allow to use any of his normal methods. When that didn't turn up anything, Sandaime-sama asked a Yamanaka to look through my memories of the time I spent with the hebi, but they couldn't find them. It seemed that when he put the seal on me, he also sealed away my memories."

"Why exactly are you telling me this? You said it yourself at the hospital, we barely know each other."

A nervous smile replaced Anko's normal one. "I was kind of hoping we could change that. There aren't many people in this village that would risk their lives, or even their careers, for me, but you did both in a single night when we are basically complete strangers. Maybe Nai-chan was right and it was only because we have led similar lives, but even if that's true, I have this feeling that nothing but good can come from getting to know you better."

"You realize that by associating with me the villagers and even some shinobi will treat you worse than they already do don't you?"

"Please gaki, I've built up such a reputation that no one in their right mind will try to lay a finger on me, and while there's nothing I can do to stop their muttered comments, I'm use to it and it does affect me as much as it did when I first came back." A small smile appeared on Naruto's face before it vanished and his eyes took on a far away look. After a few seconds, Anko waved her hand in front of his face and he didn't so much as blink.

After a few moments, Naruto returned to normal and stood up looking Anko dead in the eyes. "Anko do you want the Juin Jutsu removed."

Anko looked confused and slightly angry. "Of course I do, but Sandaime-sama's already had Jiraiya-sama look at it, but he said it was impossible without Orochimaru's notes. Why?"

"I need you to trust me, turn around and show me the seal again. This will hurt, but the end result will be worth the pain, I promise you."

As she did what Naruto instructed, she could hide the fear that crept into his eyes and voice. "What are you going to do?"

Kyuubi's red yokai coated the palm of his right hand as he held it over the Juin Jutsu. "The impossible." He pressed his hand down on her shoulder and steeled himself as her whimpers of pain quickly became screams and held tight as her body started to writhe in pain. As this was happening, his chakra flowed from his stub of a left shoulder and took the basic shape of his arm. He felt the yokai receded into his arm and the pain left Anko, and while she remained conscious, her legs gave out from under her. He caught her with his left arm and laid her down on the bed, hiding his right arm behind him. Even in her state, Anko noticed this and in a flash of movement held his right arm out in front of him by the wrist.

Her eyes went wide at the sight before her, there on his palm was the Juin Jutsu, glowing bright red and writing around, trying to move up his arm. "What did you do?"

"I removed it from you and took it into myself."

"I was right, you are fucking stupid, that thing could kill you!"

"No it can't, watch." She looked back at his palm and the glow was growing dimmer as it moved back towards his palm until it turned back into three black tomoes in a circle and eventually faded into nothing. "Her chakra destroys any foreign substance that enters my body."

"Then how can you have seals on your arm?"

"They were made from my blood and infused with both our energies." A large smile formed on Naruto's face. "I believe congratulations are in order, you are free of the Juin Jutsu, however I do not know if this will return your memories or not."

A smile slowly came to Anko's face, but it still held confusion. "Naruto, why did you ask if I wanted the seal removed, when I'm sure you knew the answer?"

"I had a feeling, but in order for the transfer to work, it had to be done willingly, otherwise the Juin Jutsu would have sent its roots deeper become stronger, and therefore harder to resist." Anko got up from the bed and threw her arms around him. His body stiffened at first, but he began to relax in her embrace and began to worry when he felt his something wet on his chest. "Anko, are you alright? The pain's not still bothering you is it?"

She pulled away and smiled at him. "No, I'm fine. I'm better than fine, you have no idea what you've done for me. I'm finally free of his influence, and I don't know if I can repay you for what you did. There are really only two thing I can give you, but I don't really think you're my type, so option number two it is." Anko started laughing as Naruto's face turned bright red as his mind ran wild with possibilities. "I knew that would get you, every man is at least slightly perverted, I was surprised when Nai-chan didn't get a reaction, but she's never been the type to try to make a guy blush."

Naruto got a mischievous grin on his face and leaned in so his mouth was next to her ear and when he spoke again it was in a whisper. "I was thinking all the things I would do to you if I was your 'type', because if I was, I'd take your offer without a second thought." He leaned back with a sad sigh. "But since I'm not, I'm kind of sad to say it makes Icha Icha Paradise seem tame in comparison."


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto sat across the room from his supposed teammates, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha. He had spent ten minutes after his team had been announced cursing the old Hokage for putting him on this team, which had been over two hours ago. They were all that remained of the graduates as the other teams had already been picked up by their sensei. The other two were content to ignore him and for that he was grateful, instead he spent his time thinking over what had happened to him four days ago.

**Flashback:**

The sun was directly overtop Naruto as he lifted his hand from a scroll before rolling it back up and tossed to a nearby shadow that caught it in its mouth and disappeared in a puff of smoke. "So all I do is put some blood on my hand, use the seals you told me to, and then place my hand against the ground or something else?"

Anko smiled at the blonde. "That's right, and depending on how much chakra you put into it the larger they'll be, but you should be careful, most of the larger ones can shallow you whole."

"I'll keep that in mind. Now let's give it a try shall we?" Biting down on his thumb hard enough to draw blood, he pushed a lot of chakra into a set of five seals before slamming his hand on the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu." Symbols appeared around his hand in a circle with eight lines coming out of it, and then the area they were in was shrouded in smoke. From it came, much to Anko's shock and horror, a large purple head with four spikes, pale blue iris with slit pupils with black sclera. The snake's body was massive with black bands every five yards or so. Standing atop the massive head was a grinning Naruto.

A forked tongue flicked out of its mouth before sliding back in. **"Why have you summoned me Anko, there is no danger here. And you know the price for summoning me and what's more for doing so without reason."**

Anko trembled at the sight of the snake, which grew worse as it spoke. Naruto could see this even from so high up and intervened. "Anko is not to blame Hebi-san, I was the one to summon you. I'm sorry if I have upset you for doing so, but this was my first attempt and I was unaware of how much chakra I would need to summon one as large as yourself."

Again the tongue flickered out and back in. **"You expect me to believe you summoned me, the Hebi Boss Manda, on your first attempt?" **There was a hissing noise Naruto expected to be laughter coming from the snake below his feet.** "Not even Orochimaru could accomplish that, but I'll humor you child, tell me why I should believe you."**

"No matter what I tell you Manda-sama, you will still believe what you want to. That is one thing I have learned from living in this village, no matter how hard you try to convince people, unless you show them undeniable proof, and sometimes even then, they will continue to believe what they want to. But since we're humoring one another, I'm not sure if you can sense my chakra, but there's enough left to summon you another four times and have some to spare. Not to mention if you look at your summoning scroll, you'll find my name, Naruto Uzumaki, newly added, I doubt the blood's even dry yet."

Naruto had to use chakra to hold on as the entire head started to shake while the laughing hiss escaped the snake's mouth. **"You are an amusing child, and you are wise for your age. There is however, a test you must take to summon my kind, how well you do will determine the level of hebi summon you will be allowed to use. Summoning one higher than you are allowed will result in either your death, or human sacrifices. Do you understand?"**

Without hesitation, the blonde answered. "I do."

"**Very well. The test is fairly simple in principle, you must hide yourself from my senses. The longer you can remain hidden the higher-ranking hebi you can summon. To both ensure her safety, as well as to make sure she isn't helping you, Anko will be allowed to sit atop my head for the duration of the test. You shall receive a few minutes to hide yourself." **Naruto didn't say a word, but in a puff of smoke he and Anko had switched places and he disappeared from the area without a trace. **"How would you rate his hiding ability Anko?"**

"Truthfully, I would not know. He doesn't seem the type to hide from his problems but I haven't know him very long either."

"**Then why allow him to sign the contract?"**

"He saved my life, by risking his own and then risked his career as a shinobi to make sure I was alright in the same night."

**"Well then, if he is good enough to defeat someone you could not, I shall see great things from him."**

"I'm honored you think so highly of me Manda-sama."

**"Orochimaru trained you well, and as I have told him, he was a fool to throw you aside. If not for the fact he is our clan's strongest summoner, I would terminate his contract."**

**Flashback End:**

Utilizing his natural ability to hide his chakra, he was able to remain suspended off the ground to avoid making vibrations, and used his wind element to both lower his body temperature as well as keep his scent from reaching Manda. It was almost sunset when the giant snake finally found him due to a massive headache from the dispersal of the large number of Kage Bunshin he used to try and fool the Hebi Boss with, from the lack of chakra needed to sustain them. Needless to say that after nearly six hours, Manda was impressed by his skills, enough so that he allowed the blonde to summon him without cost, an honor not even Orochimaru obtained. Though unlike the Hebi Sannin, Naruto wasn't able to get the summoning tattoo due to Kyuubi's yokai. 'Not that I care, with the seals on my arm I'm probably able to summon just as fast as that bastard.' He looked to the door as he felt a chakra source appear behind it. "Must be our sensei, it's about damn time too, I don't know how much more of these two I can take in a single sitting."

He felt two glares focused on him. 'I said that out loud didn't it?'

**'Yep.'**

Naruto shrugged. 'Oh well, their glares are nothing compared to mine, and not even worthy to be compared to yours.'

**'Oh kit stop, you're making me blushing.'**

He smiled as she replied in a monotone, but had barely hidden amusement behind it. The door opened to reveal a man wearing jonin attire with a mask over the lower half of his face, his hitai-ate pulled down over his left eye, gray gravity-defying spikes of hair, and a lazy look in his uncovered eye. "My first impression of you is, you're boring. I was told I had the prankster from hell on my team and not even so much as an eraser wedged in the crack of the door, and here I gave you two hours to come up with something good." The man sighed. "Well, meet me up on the roof."

The man disappeared in a puff of smoke, that the others believed to be Shunshin. Naruto was smirking at what the man had actually done. 'Damn, why didn't I think of that?' Following the others out of the room and up the stairwell, they found the same man leaning against the railing with a small orange book in his hands with a man chasing a woman on the front with hearts between the two on the cover and a 'not allowed' symbol on the back. "You really shouldn't read that book in the open like that sensei, kunoichi seem to be the strongest when they're pissed off, and nothing seems to do that nearly as well as those books."

The man shifted his eye to him. "Hm, did you say something?"

He had expected the blonde to get riled like a certain green spandex wearing jonin would, but the boy kept smiling. "Nothing important, not anymore at least." The jonin was confused by that last statement and turned back to his book only to find it missing and in its place a note. _'Sending a Kage Bunshin to get us two hours late isn't a smart idea, especially when you could have sent one on time and still done whatever you were doing. So in repentance, I've taken your book. Sincerely yours, Prankster from Hell. Have a nice day! P.S. the other one's gone too.'_

Kakashi checked to see if it was true and glared at the blonde when he found it was. "Impressive, now give them back."

The blonde had a fox-like smile on his face while Sakura looked between the two with confusion. "What are you talking about sensei, the three of us just got here, what could this baka have done in that short of time?"

The look in the jonin's eye reverted to what it had been, but not before sending a look at the blonde that said he would get Naruto back for this. "Now that we're all here, let get to know each other, tell me your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future, and stuff like that. Who would like to go first?"

Sakura still looked confused. "Um, sensei, would you go first so we know what we're supposed to do?"

He looked up towards the sky for a moment. "I suppose I can. My name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes and dislikes are none of your concern, my dream is… I have lots of hobbies." Naruto's smile dimmed while the others both thought. 'All we learned was his name.' Unlike them, Naruto had an eye for the little things, and learned some things from his body language. Like when he said likes, he glared lightly at Naruto, at dislikes his glare went to the emotionless Uchiha, during the pause after his dream, an overwhelming feeling of sadness and regret appeared in his eye, and disappeared again when he mentioned his hobbies. "So how about you pinky?"

Sakura glared at being called that, but started anyway. "My name is Sakura Haruno, my likes…" She looked at Sasuke and squealed. "My dislikes are Ino-pig and Naruto-baka!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Love you too Hime."

The pinkette ignored his comment and continued. "My hobbies are reading and…" Again she looks at Sasuke and squeals. "My dream for the future…" For a third time she looks at Sasuke, this time with a dark blush and gives off several squeals and giggles.

Both Naruto and Kakashi were rubbing their ears for a half a minute afterwards Kakashi think. 'A fangirl, just what I needed.' He sighs. "Alright, Blondie, your turn."

"Naruto Uzumaki. My likes are foxes, snakes to an extent, ramen, and the small group of people close to me, which as of yet none of you are apart of. My dislikes are traitors, perverts that peek at hot springs and the like, closet perverts and those that only read the Icha Icha series are okay for the most part, and there's one person in particular that could possibly be on this list, though until I know for certain I'll reserve judgment. My hobbies are training, gardening…" He got funny looks from the other three on the roof. "What, it's relaxing. Anyway, my hobbies also include writing. As for my dreams for the future, I don't really have any. I live for today because only Kami-sama knows what's beyond that, but if I had to say something, I guess it be that I'd like to have a family someday."

Kakashi smiled sadly under his mask. 'He may not have turned out the way Minato-sensei wished for, but it's better than most would expect. Though I wonder if he was talking about sensei during his dislikes.' "And last Mr. Dark and Gloomy."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I don't particularly like anything, I dislike a lot of things, and I have no hobbies. My dream, no, my ambition is to kill a certain man and restore my clan."

Naruto rolled his eyes. 'Good luck with that, the bastard was an Anbu and will only have gotten stronger since.' "It's kind of hard to restore a clan when you're as straight as a circle."

Again he felt the glares of his peers, and saw amusement in Kakashi's eye. "Sasuke-kun is not gay!"

"He would have to be to not pay attention to all the ass you fangirls put in front of him on a sliver platter. Any straight guy would be taking advantage of that kind of situation. Well except for me, you'll all a bunch of weak banshees to me."

"I'll show you weak!" She nailed Naruto in the temple with her right fist, but he went up in smoke and a note floated to the ground where he had been. _'Next time Pinky, consult the Brain before you act, it may save your life.'_

She crumpled up the note as Kakashi brought the attention back to himself. "Meet tomorrow at seven o'clock at training ground seven and bring your gear, this will be your final test to see if you become genin or not."

Sakura mouth hung open. "But we're already genin."

Naruto hopped down from a nearby tree. "Apparently not, the test a week ago was probably to just weed out those not even close to capable of becoming genin, like this one will get rid of those who aren't ready yet."

Sasuke smirked. "That would be you dope."

Kakashi smiled under his mask. 'If only you knew Sasuke, what with taking down the Juin Jutsu empowered Mizuki on top of how well he did during the genin test, Anko, Asuma, and Kurenai were all practically begging Hokage-sama to take him on as their apprentice, and should this team not pass one of them may just get their wish, after all he has already completed an A-rank mission, more than enough proof he has what it takes, not to mention his actions afterwards that proves it to me.' His face became dead serious. "Naruto is correct on both accounts, however this test has a sixty-six point six percent fail rate, as only nine to the graduates will become actual genin." His eye turned into an upside-down U showing them he was smile. "So, I'll see you tomorrow. A bit of advice though, don't eat breakfast, you'll just throw it back up. Bye." This time he really did use Shunshin, and the three genin left the roof, but not before Sakura asked Sasuke out one more time, to both boys annoyance.

-------------------------

The next morning, Naruto found the two other genin standing about the training ground at eight thirty looking frustrated. When Sakura saw him, she started screeching. "You're late dope, what if sensei had come when you weren't here, Sasuke-kun and I may have gotten in trouble because of you!"

"Calm down, I have a perfectly reasonable excuse for being late." Sakura gave him a questionable look. "I was having breakfast."

"You baka, sensei told us not to eat breakfast!"

"No, he recommended we don't eat. Besides that if you were truly as smart as you say you are, you would know that you should eat a low protein meal before a strenuous workout so you have the have energy you need. And if you think about it logically, he was two hours late yesterday, what makes you think he'll be on time today?" Naruto left her standing there with her mouth hanging open and moved towards the small creek nearby, but stopped and addressed the person following him without looking back at them. "What do you want Uchiha?"

"Fight me."

"No."

Sasuke smirked. "Are you afraid I'll kick your ass like I did a month ago?"

"As I recall, you could barely lay a hand on me, and the only reason you won was because I took the hit so you didn't kill over half the class."

"Then fight me."

"No, I see no point in wasting my energy on someone like you." Three seals on Naruto's arms glowed in the series of Tori, Nezumi, Saru, Tori, as he walked away from the fuming Uchiha, just incase.

And it was a good thing he did, for as soon as he started walking again, the dark haired boy started forming hand signs. Bringing his hand to his mouth, he launched out a large fireball. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" **(I know I used it before but at this point it's the strongest jutsu he knows)**

As the ball grew closer, Naruto turned so his right side was towards the ball and held his hand at full length with his palm out in front. "Futon: Hirate no Shinkuu Fuchi." **(Wind Release: Vacuum Abyss of the Palm)** A hole that covered most of his palm formed in the center of it and created a massive wind that pulled the fireball to the blonde faster. As it neared his hand, the ball of flames was turned into a stream of fire and it entered the hole in his hand.** (It's Miroku's Wind Tunnel except for a few minor details, which I don't own either.)** Once the last of the fire had been pulled in, the hole grew gradually smaller till it vanished leaving no sign if its or the fireball's existence. "Get your head out of your ass so you can hear properly Uchiha, I'm not going to fight you!"

Despite what he had just seen, the Uchiha launched off several smaller fireballs. "Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!" **(Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Technique) **

Jumping back, Naruto landed on top of the water, much to the other two genin's surprise and channeled chakra into the seals Ryuu, Oushi, Ohitsuji, and then Ryuu again. "Suiton: Tsunami Kabe." **(Water Release: Tidal Wave Wall)** Slamming his foot down on the surface of the water, a wall formed in front of him stopping the fireballs from reaching him and when he dropped the wall it crashed against the shore like a tide wave. By the time the wall had sank low enough for the two boys to see each other, Naruto's eyes had taken on a icy blue glow as he glared at the Uchiha. In the wake of his jutsu, the blonde was able to sense another chakra source nearby aside from Sakura's. 'I swear if that's sensei, I'm going to rip him a new one for letting this go as far as it has.' Putting his full focus back on the Uchiha, he slowly raised his right hand towards the sky with his index and middle fingers extended as he spoke. "You should be careful what you ask for Uchiha…" Chakra was channeled through the Inu, Uma, Usagi, and then Inu again. "You just might get it! Raiton: **Hiraishin**."** (Lightning Release: Lightning Rod. (A/N: This is what the Online translator I've been using said Hiraishin came out to, so please don't send me reviews saying that's not what it means.)** A bolt of lightning came down from a nearly clear sky and struck the blonde's fingers, but instead of dissipating, the bolt remained connected to his fingertips and swung his arm as the other end fell towards the ground. "**Reikou no Kei." ****(Whip of Lightning)**

Sasuke was able to dodge Naruto's continuous swings, but as time went on, doing so by a smaller margin every time. Fortunately for the Uchiha, just as the whip was just about to connect, Kakashi appeared and grabbed hold of it with his gloved hand. "Alright Naruto, that's enough."

Withdrawing his chakra, the lightning fizzled out and Naruto started walking towards them. "And you shouldn't have let it escalate that far sensei, I know you were watching and could have stepped in at anytime."

"You're right, I should have stopped it, but I was curious how you would handle it. Your last jutsu was quite interesting, though I believe I've heard the name before."

Naruto shrugged as he walked by. "Mine's more appropriately named than his considering it's an actual Raiton instead of a Ninpo."

Naruto started over towards the training posts where Sakura was standing with Sasuke and Kakashi following behind him, the former sending a glare that the blonde's back. Once there, the blonde leaned back against the far left post, ignoring the glares of his teammates and focusing on the silver hair jonin. "Alright, so here's the deal, I have two bells." He pulled them out to prove his point along with a timer. "You have until this timer goes off, which will be at noon, to get one of these bells from me, if you don't you'll be tied to one of those post and have to watch as myself and anyone who did get a bell eat lunch." Naruto smirked when the other two's stomachs growled loudly. "In addition, anyone who doesn't get a bell will be sent back to the academy."

Naruto smirk was replaced by a contemplating look while Sakura stated the obvious. "But there are only two bells and three of us."

"Which means at least one of you will fail, which is why each of you has a sixty-six percent chance of failure, like I told you yesterday. I believe we should start for your benefit, since the longer we stay here the less time you have to get the bells. But before that, I want to tell you that you can use anything at your disposal, because if you want a bell you'll have to come at me with the intent to kill."

Sakura looked worried. "But sensei, we could really hurt you if we use kunai and shuriken." The three males looked at her. "What?"

Naruto was the one who answered. "Just wondering if it was good."

"If what was good?"

"The sex with Mizuki, how else do you explain you being the 'smartest' kunoichi of our class? We're genin, the chances of _one_ of us actually hurting a jonin like him is like someone trying to lift the Hokage Tower with one hand, highly unlikely if not impossible."

Sasuke smirked due to Sakura being left speechless, while an eye smiling Kakashi turned to Naruto. 'Judging by how he said that, he may have figured out the purpose of the test, but whether these three will pass has yet to be seen.' "What make you so sure it wasn't Iruka?"

The blonde smiled. "If you met his girlfriend, you wouldn't be asking me that."

Kakashi shrugged and put the time on top of the middle post. "Well then, let's begin." In a blur of movement, Sakura and Sasuke disappeared, leave the blonde and Kakashi. The Cyclops eyed the forest before looking at Naruto. 'They seem to have hiding down, though because of their chakra it won't be hard to find them, then we have this one. I can't sense his chakra, but he didn't even try to hide.' "You're a strange one aren't you?"

Naruto smiled. "You have no idea sensei, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about." He lowered his voice so only they could hear. "I know what you're trying to do, and because of who's on this team it will work. Despite how I personally feel about both of them, I'm at least willing to work with them, but neither will work with me, hell Sasuke won't working with anyone, believing everyone to be hindrances."

"So what will you do now?"

"Well, the way I see it, I have three options." Naruto held up a finger. "First, I just stay here till the timer goes off." Kakashi nodded as a second finger was added. "Second, I attempt to get them to work with me even though I know they won't." A third finger was added. "Or third, I attempt to get a bell on my own and hope that I show enough promise, or get a bell, to be able to remain a genin."

"So what are you going to do?"

Naruto shrugged as he pushed away from the post. "While the first one sounds appealing, knowing how this turns out, I haven't been able to test my limits in some time." Rolling his neck and getting several cracks he pushed a large amount of chakra into the Juuji seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Everything within a five foot radius was shrouded completely in smoke. When it was gone, Kakashi found that both bells were still there and that he was surrounded by thirty blondes in three waves, five made up the first, then ten, and then fifteen. The second and third waves jumped back as the first rushed the jonin, each with a kunai in hand.

Reaching into his supply pouch, Kakashi draw a kunai of his own, and blocked one of the blonde's attacks while kicking at one coming from behind him, making it go up in smoke. Swinging the same leg forward, he destroyed the clone in front of him, which allowed him to stab another with the kunai he had used to block. Planting his foot, he hit another with a backhand to the temple, before the final one landed a right hook to his jaw, causing Kakashi to transform into Naruto before exploding into smoke. A shuriken cut through the smoke and implanted in the clone's head, as Kakashi gave an upper-cut to another before elbowing one that tried to sneak up on him.

Kakashi let three kunai fly and they while they destroyed two clones, a third dodged and implanted his fist in Kakashi's gut, only to be dispelled by a hard double fisted hit to the head. 'This is getting annoying.' His foot connected with the side of another clone's head, before being turned into a heel drop as a clone tried to get past his guard by coming low and behind the newly deceased. The remaining clones repositioned themselves, giving him a chance to catch his breath, but his eye narrowed as he found only twelve clones around him. 'There should be five more, but where…" His eyes widened slightly as he saw two, one on either side of him dispel themselves. 'It seems he knows the trick to shadow clones, he's using them to learn how I fight, which means he's probably not even among the ones here." Bringing his hands together, he ran through a series of seals too fast for any of the genin to follow and jumped up into the air. "Futon: Reppusho." **(Wind Release: Violent Wind Palm)**

Throwing his hand towards the ground, a extremely strong gust of wind slammed into the clones destroying them all and forming a slight dip around where they stood, but not before a single clone dispel itself. Naruto sat on a thick tree branch, his back against the trunk, one leg hanging off the side, the other bent so that his foot was flat against the branch, his right arm laid across his stomach, and his left hanging by his side. 'I should see if he'll teach me that after the test is over.' He heard twigs breaking as well as leaves russling below him and looked to find Sakura moving through the underbrush. 'Her chakra reserves must be really small, I can barely sense it.' He stood up as one of the two other sources came closer to them. 'Must be Kakashi, Sasuke would have gone straight for him.'

He wasn't disappointed as seconds later, the silver haired jonin came out of the trees behind Sakura forimg seals and then tapped her on the shoulder. He didn't know what he had done, but geussed it was genjutsu as she soon started screaming and fainted. Shortly after she fell, Kakashi leapt away from her and Naruto had considered following him, but when he looked over at Sakura prone body, he knew he'd feel guilty if he left her there, so he went and picked her up before leaping after the jonin.

When he reached the area where Kakashi and Sasuke were fighting, he arrived in time to see Kakashi use Kawarimi to escape, surprise, surprise, a giant fireball. Sasuke looked around frantically muttering. "Where is he, behind, above?"

Naruto saw two hands slowly emerge from the ground at Sasuke's feet, which grabbed his ankles as he heard Kakashi's voice. "Below." Sasuke was quickly pulled down to the point that only his head remained above ground. "You're not as different from your teammates as you think." Kakashi leapt away and back towards the posts. When Naruto felt his chakra get far enough away, he walked out to where Sasuke was and laid the still unconscious Sakura down.

Being glared at the whole time, Naruto approached the boy, who opened his moth to speak, but Naruto pulled down the boy's hitai-ate and turned it around so the knot was in the boy's mouth. Hearing movement behind him, Naruto turned and found Sakura waking up. "Good you're up, now I won't have to repeat myself." Sakura finally noticed Sasuke and was about to scream again, but stayed silent due to the icy glare directed at her from the blonde. "Now since I have your attention, I thought you'd like to know that in order to pass this test we have to work as a team."

Sakura seemed to have pushed aside the glare, for she glared back at the blonde. "Like Sasuke-kun would need your help dope."

"Sakura, why would we be separated into teams of three and then be given a test that would automatically fail at least one? The whole point of this test is to see if we can work together, the bells don't even matter."

"If the bells don't matter than why have them, huh?"

Naruto slapped his hand against his face. "They're meant to make us turn on each other, trying to make it so we won't work together."

"Yeah right, you just want to make Sasuke-kun weaken sensei so you can get a bell."

Naruto's icy blue eyes bore into her own dark green ones. "You don't want my help, fine. I'll see you both at the Academy next year." Naruto turned and walked the way Kakashi had gone, leaving Sakura to dig Sasuke out. When he walked into the clearing where Kakashi stood, the jonin got into a fighting stance, but Naruto walked right past him. "I tried." He hopped on top on of a training post as the timer went off. Kakashi sighed as he went over to join Naruto while they waited for the other two to show up.

When they finally did, Kakashi pulled out a rope. "Seeing as how no one got a bell, you should all be tied up, but I only have enough rope for one, so since Sakura didn't even try to get a bell she'll be the one tied to the post." Sakura looked devastated as Kakashi approached with the rope, but the sound of jingling stopped him. He looked over at Naruto, who was holding two familiar bells by their stings in his right hand. He looked at the bells tied to his belt as found a cloud of smoke, from which two Narutos emerged. "But when?"

"In the smoke screen made by my clones, I henged two clones into the bells and used Kawarimi to switch them before it cleared." He tossed the bells to the other two as the clones dispelled, both of who looked surprised by this. "Is it enough or do we still fail sensei?"

"Seeing as none of you actually worked together…" Sakura paled slightly while Sasuke's face remained unemotional. "I should say you failed, but seeing as you not only managed to get both bells, but you willingly gave them up, and at least attempted to get them to work with you, it wouldn't be right to punish you for their mistakes." He turned and looked at Sasuke and Sakura. "I'm going to pass you all, but the only reason you two will become actual genin is because of Naruto." Sakura looked over at the blonde discretely while Sasuke glared at the jonin, which was returned before Kakashi's gaze went to the stone behind them. "On that stone is the names of heroes of our village, and the one thing they all have in common is that they are dead. They died protecting their home and their comrades. In the world of the ninja, those who violate rules and laws are called trash, but those who don't take care of their comrades are worse than trash." He turned back to his new charges. "Tomorrow at seven meet in at the small bridge at the edge of the training field, we'll train until noon and then go to the Hokage Tower for a mission. You're free to go." With that he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sasuke left glowering with Sakura on his heels while Naruto smiled but stayed put. 'So sensei, you used to be Neko's commander before Kuma took over, interesting.' He jumped off the post and started walking towards the market area of the village. 'Time for training with Anko, never thought torture could be so much fun.'


	7. Chapter 7

Five snakes shot out of the sleeve covering Naruto's out stretched arm towards a small log in midair, they wrapped around it before sinking their teeth in and finally crushing the log. Clapping came from behind him as Anko stepped towards him. "Not bad gaki, but you're still too slow. Sen'eijashu **(Hidden Shadow Snake Hand)** is meant to be used quickly so you can bind your opponent while receiving minimal damage, though the more you work at it the easier it will get, but I will admit you're doing really well for only being at it a few hours. Maybe by the time we get done tonight you're speed will have increased."

"Actually Anko, I need to call it a day."

She tilted her head to the side in confusion. "What are you talking about, we've only been at it for three hours, the past few days we've trained nearly from sun up to sun down. Kakashi's test didn't wear you out that much did it?"

"No, it's just I have to go see someone, I've been meaning to go see him for the past week, I didn't want to stop training with you though, but I don't think I can wait any more."

Anko smirked. "I would have given you the day off if you asked, but since you decided to wait till last minute, I'm going to make sure you work twice as hard tomorrow for slacking off today. Now get out of here before I decide to make you train anyway." Naruto smiled at her before saying thanks and taking off, not noticing the slight pink tinge of her cheeks as he did. 'What the hell is wrong with me, blushing because a twelve year old boy smiled at me, I'm almost twice his age for Kami's sake. Sure he's the only guy in the village other than the Sandaime to actually be kind to me, but there's no way I could feel like that towards him, right?' Looking confused, Anko left the area in a puff of smoke.

Meanwhile, Naruto landed outside of a small shop that's window space was taken up entirely by flowers. Walking into the shop, his nose was assaulted by the aromas of hundreds of kinds of flowers and quickly made his way to the counter where he found the long blonde haired girl from his class sitting looking bored. He walked up to her with a small smile on his face as he greeted her. "Hey Ino, your dad around?"

She smiled widely seeing her fellow blonde haired genin. "Hey Naruto, yeah he's at the house, why?" Naruto smile dimmed and she looked at him concerned. "I was just about to lock up for the day, so if you'll wait a few seconds I can take you to him."

"Thanks Ino, I appreciate it."

When she came back, she led him through the shop to the back door and towards a small house behind the shop. "Hey Naruto, I'm sorry about the academy, I should have tried to stop Sakura and everybody from picking on you, I wasn't being a very good friend to you."

Naruto smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We've known each other for years Ino, the only things you could possibly do to get me mad at you is to 1.) Take away my ramen, good luck with that though, 2.) Intentionally hurt one of my precious people or me, or 3.) Obsess over some guy so much you neglect your kunoichi training. Since you haven't done any of these things, there's no need to apologize, but if it makes you feel better, I'm kind of glad you agreed publicly with Sakura when it concerned Sasuke and me, people will think you're an obsessed fangirl and underestimate you, making it all the funnier when you kick their asses."

"Naruto, watch you language in front of my daughter, the last thing I need is for her mother to think she picked it up from me." Both blonde genin turned to find a man with blonde hair longer than Ino's tied into a ponytail leaning against the doorframe with a smile on his face. "So what is it I can do for you Naruto?"

"Inoichi, they've started coming back."

The man's face became serious. "When?"

"After the exam."

"And you're just now coming to me? Usually you're here within hours."

"I've been too busy to really think about them, but at night when I try to sleep I have nothing to distract me from them, I need you to block them again."

"This will be the fourth time, and the periods between them are becoming shorter, you know what this means don't you?"

"Yes, my mind is becoming resilient to your technique, that's why I'm only asking you to reseal threes and above, I can handle the twos and the one, and with any luck the next time it will be even fewer you have to do until I don't need you to seal them anymore."

Inoichi sighed, but nodded. "Alright, so long as you know I can't keep doing this forever, if the periods keep decreasing like they have, I'd say five maybe six more times at most, after that they will break free and you'll have to face them, whether you're ready or not." Inoichi looked at his daughter, who looked at the boy sadly, but a small smile formed on his face. "Naruto, I've been teaching Ino how to seal memories, but in times of peace like this, there are few people who need or are willing to allow such a thing. Would you be willing to allow her to assist me so she can gain the needed experience to perform it efficiently?"

Naruto was silent for a moment before he nodded. "As long as you keep her away from the higher level stuff, I don't want that on my conscience."

Inoichi nodded his face serious again. "Nothing above a four." The three of them made their way to a sitting room where after sitting the two Yamanaka started performing seals. **"Shintenshin no Jutsu." (Mind Body Switch Technique)** The last thing Naruto saw before darkness over took him was the two long haired blondes collapsing in their seats.

When Ino's vision came back to her, she couldn't help but gasp at the sight before her. "It's beautiful."

Beside her Inoichi nodded. "Indeed, quite an improvement from what it was the last time I was here, though that wouldn't have been hard."

She looked at him in confusion, but her look wasn't answered by him, but by a voice coming from further down the wooded tunnel. "What he means Ino is that it was at one point a literal sewer in here, but that was four years ago."

Ino turned to find Naruto walking towards them, a red light glowing brightly from the end of the tunnel behind him. "Naruto? How are you here, and what's with the light?"

"I've been able to come here for a while now, and as for the light… well that's for later." He led them down the tunnel and into the first turn off they came to, the sides of this tunnel were lined with doors, a large number of which had tags.

Naruto stopped at the start of the tunnel as the Yamanaka duo walked further in. "Ino." She looked at her father, who had a dead serious face. "I don't want you to attempt to do anything over four tags. The more tags there are, the harder it is to seal, and the worse the memory is. You're not ready to experience anything over that, nor does Naruto want you to."

The girl turned to look at Naruto, who was looking towards where she had seen the light. "Tou-san, why does Naruto have anything over a four, you said that I would probably only ever have to seal a five at most, and that would be during wartime. Why does he even need his memories sealed at all?"

Inoichi looked sadly at the blonde boy. "Naruto is a special case, he has the highest memory seal level that I've ever placed, or heard of for that matter, at thirteen. Even the memories Yondaime-sama needed suppressed from when he used Hiraishin to decimate Iwa's troops in the last Great War only require eight. Luckily, Naruto only has one thirteen, the rest are sevens or lower. I can only hope that he is ready to face it when it breaks free, or it will break his mind. As for why…"

"I'll show you after you both finish." He gave Inoichi a look that told him he was going to do it, and the man smiled slightly before going to work, with Ino following after him. After being retold the principals of the technique, she found herself in front of a door with four seals that were glowing dimly. After taking a deep breath to calm her nervousness, she started making a series of hand seals and slammed her hands against the door when she finished.

The area around her faded and was replaced by the streets of Konoha at night and she saw a younger Naruto no older than four running from three men. One of them threw a bottle at the boy that hit him in the back of the head and shattered. The boy fell to the ground while blood slowly colored his golden blonde locks red. The three men laughed as they surrounded him before kicking the downed boy. After several minutes, two of the men lifted the boy under the armpits as the third pulled a knife. One of the two men holding the boy looked around nervously. "Hurry and kill the demon, the Anbu won't leave it alone for very long."

The man with the knife approached them slowly. "This thing doesn't deserve a quick death, I'm going to make it suffer for killing all those people." He drove the knife into the right shoulder joint causing the boy to scream out in pain, which doubled when the man ripped the blade out and then did the same to the other shoulder. Tears where running down both blondes' faces, though the boy's eyes were becoming hazy. The man smiled evilly when he saw this and turned to the other two. "Let's dump this thing somewhere, by the time the Anbu find it, it'll have bled to death, and in case it does survive, I say we leave it something to remember us by." The two nodded and dragged the boy to a condemned apartment building by the arms and threw him against the inner wall. The man with the knife walked up to him and cut the boy's shirt down the front, pressing harder than necessary, leaving a cut down his chest. He then changed to a reverse grip with the blade and placed his other palm on the pommel and pushed the point into the boy's chest. He deliberately went slowly and looked to be enjoying the boy's screams as he craved the word demon into the blonde's chest in capital letters.

By the time he was finished, the boy was on the verge of passing out from pain and blood loss, and he sat there admiring his work until he heard two thumps behind him and turned to find his buddies unmoving on the ground, though they looked to be breathing, and a Saru masked Anbu with short black hair standing between them. He looked at the knife in the man's hand and then at the bleeding blonde. The man looked like he was fighting for air as the Anbu unsheathed his short sword on his back. Saru disappeared and was by Naruto's side before the man fell to the ground and his head rolled away from his body. "Hold on gaki."

Her vision faded again and she found herself back in the wooded tunnel, the seals on the door now shining brightly. Tears still falling down her cheeks, she turned to find Naruto, but he was nowhere to be seen. She fell onto her backside and pulled her knees to her chest, taking time to recover after what she had witnessed. For a brief time she consider just staying where she was, but that thought was quickly thrown aside. 'I told Tou-san that I was ready to for this, I can't quit now." She pushed herself to her feet and started looking for a three seal door. 'I don't think I can handle another four door just yet.'

Down the hallway, Inoichi smiled. 'I didn't expect her to get up, especially since he's one of her oldest friends, I know I wouldn't have at her age. I just hope he knows what he's doing telling her about Kyuubi.' He walked to a door near where she had been, behind him was a door with thirteen seals glowing almost blindingly bright. 'May she never have to see that.'

**With Ino:**

Ino walked out of a door with three seals looking ready to kill someone. In the memory she just witnessed, a drunken villager broke a bottle over Naruto's head and slashed him across the face, a longer shard got him from left cheek, across the bridge of the nose, and above the right eye, while a shorter one cut from the outside edge of the left eyebrow towards his hair till the glass shard broke off in his skin. He was able to get away before any more damage was done. It was the last door with three seals, it hadn't taken her long to finish them because, though large in number, they were relatively short memories, that didn't mean they weren't horrifying by any means though. She had seen things that would leave most scarred for life, and dreading what she would find in the next set. Stopping in front of a door with four seals, she took a deep breath and slammed her hands on to it.

A six-year-old Naruto was running from a mob of people in the middle of the day, all of them with sharp object, ranging from glass to swords. He turned into an alleyway, but as he turned he ran into someone, who slammed him against the wall and pinned his arms against the wall outstretched with two tantos stabbed through the palms of his hands. The mob caught up and started slashing his body, staying away from his stomach. One got him with a downward swing of a kitchen knife across the right eye and through two of the whisker marks on his cheek. His right eye stayed closed after that and his left seemed to be unfocused, showing he was on the verge of passing out. A woman pushed her way to the front of the crowd, she was wearing a chunin flak jacket, and an evil sneer on her face. She had a kunai in her hand and she grabbed Naruto's face. "Why so serious demon? Why aren't you smiling like you always do?" She received nothing as a reply, and the sneer turned into a full smile. "Don't worry, I'll help you put a smile on that face." She stuck the blade of the kunai between the blonde's lip at the right corner of his mouth and tilted it upwards before slowly pulling it towards the blonde's ear.

There was a spray of blood as the chunin's hand fell from her arm, the kunai still clutched in it, and before she could scream her head was removed from her shoulders. An Anbu appeared beside Naruto as the woman's body hit the ground, any defining features, including gender, were hid underneath their hooded white cloak, and Tori mask, but in their hand they held a bloody ninjato. There were Anbu surrounding the rest of the crowd, one of them started forming hand seals and mob all keeled over. The Anbu bound them all as the one to save Naruto removed the tantos and used Shunshin with him in their arms.

When she appeared back in the wooded tunnel, she was bent over and breathing heavily. She felt a hand placed on her shoulder, she turned to find Naruto standing next to her. "You should rest, even Inoichi has to once and a while." She nodded and sat down where she was.

Ino looked up at Naruto as he looked up and down the halls, counting the number of doors still unsealed. "What we saw at the academy that day was because of these wasn't it?" Naruto nodded. "Why did you hide it from Kaa-san and me? I thought we told each other everything."

Naruto looked down at her regretfully. "I'm sorry Ino, I didn't want you to know, and I'm afraid that your Kaa-san already knows, she's patched me up on more then one occasion."

"You said it yourself Naruto, we've been friends for years, I don't care what you look like, you could have horns growing from your head and I'd still be your friend because you're a kind, caring, loving person."

"I was trying to protect you Imouto." He saw her eyes widen. "You've always aspired to be a Kunoichi, even when we first met, but if you knew what was done to me by the villagers and even some ninja of the village, you might not have wanted to become one out of hatred for them."

"But you became a ninja. How can you protect them after everything they've done?"

"That's not why I became a ninja, but if I must to protect the ones I care about, I will."

She was quickly to her feet and had her arms wrapped around him. "How can you protect people who have caused you so much pain for a handful of people?"

He felt her tears land on his chest, getting his shirt wet, and wrapped his arms around her as well. "It's not the number of the people that matters, you are all a part of my family Imouto."

She looked up at him with a small smirk. "And why am I your Imouto when I'm older than you are?"

"Cause of moments like this, the older sibling is the one who should comfort the younger one. Remember how we met?" He waited a few moments for an answer, but she stayed silent, so he took it as a sign to continue. "You were sitting at the edge of a clearing near the training grounds crying cause some punk of a academy student used a Katon jutsu and destroyed the field of flowers that was there. Remember what happened to him a few days later?" He chuckled lightly when she nodded. "Found trying run towards the hospital with his pants around his ankle with one hand super glued to his… ahem… appendage and the other to a porn magazine." He heard Ino giggling in his arms. "That was the first prank I ever pulled."

"You really have always been there for me when I was down, like when you gave me that ribbon."

"The one you gave to Sakura if I'm not mistaken."

She looked at him with a smile. "You told me it was a magical ribbon that could get people to see the wearer for who they were, making it easier to make friends, and I bought every word of it."

Naruto smiled. "It worked didn't it, you became one of the most popular girls our age at the time, and still are, it even worked for Sakura. Was it magical, no, but it gave you the confidence you need to open yourself open to people other then Shikamaru, Choji, and me."

"Am I interrupting something, cause I'd like to know if I should be overjoyed because I am, or ecstatic that I'm not."

Ino saw an evil smirk appear on Naruto's face and suddenly felt sorry for her father. "Oh nothing much, I was just telling Ino of all the wonderful I could do to her if she wanted me to."

Ino's face was glowing red due to how deep she blushed and expect her dad to nearly kill the younger male blonde, but was surprised when all that happened was a scowl appearing on his face and him pinching the bridge of his nose. "I swear you're trying to make me fry your brain Naruto, every time you're over you flirt with my wife, and now you do something like this with Ino."

Naruto shrugged with a sigh as he stepped away from Ino. "What can I say, she gets her looks from her Kaa-san. Besides, you know it's all in good fun and that I'd never actual follow through with any of it… okay well maybe, I can't deny their both gorgeous, so maybe if they were single and felt the same way, but other than that you have nothing to worry about."

"Good, then you'll understand when I say this, she's my wife you, can't have her! And as for my Otome, I might consider letting you date her, but only if she decides she wants to."

Ino rolled her eyes at that. "Not going to happen Tou-san, according to him I'm his Imouto."

"That's good to hear I guess. Anyways, I've finished up the higher level ones, how are things going on your end?"

"From what I saw before we started our conversation, she's mostly done, only a few are left."

"Alright, then we should finish them up quickly, I help you out with them Ino."

"Okay Tou-san." She turned to Naruto. "Remember, you promised to tell me what that light was and why the villagers did all of this when we get done."

"No worries Ino, I will."

It took less than eight minutes to seal the remaining doors and Naruto started leading them further down the main hallway till they reach the second turn off where Ino and Inoichi stopped to glance at the metal wall, before hurrying to catch Naruto who hadn't stopped. However when they came upon the third hallway, Ino grabbed hold of Naruto's shoulder. "Naruto, what are those?"

Naruto looked down the hall, while Inoichi stepped a bit closer to get a better look. "They look like memories, but the aura around these…" The eldest blonde shuddered. "I've never seen these, yet their sealed far better than I could hope to do." He turned to the boy. "Are these…"

Naruto nodded. "Well, they're obviously not mine."

Ino looked between the two. "So those are implanted memories?"

"Something like that, you'll understand it a little better after you see what's in the next room." Naruto led them through the light, which didn't dissipate as they got closer, and they both gasped at the sight. The walls, like everywhere else was composed of a line of large trees, but there were others behind them, giving it the appearance of a real forest. The floor was a large glistening pool of calm crystal clear water with a fairly large island in the center, big enough to fit at least three Narutos lying down long ways in any direction, that had a Maple tree growing from the center, taller than either Yamanaka could see, though they could see glimpses of sunlight through its leaves, the small peninsula of land they stood on, and a five foot walkway around the outside of the pool.

What really surprised them was that they could see and hear several types of animals, from squirrels running up trees and leaping through the branches, birds flying in the clearing and chirping from their perches, to a herd of deer walking just beyond the tree line, a twelve point buck drinking from the pond, and the sound of wolves howling in the distance. The Yamanaka duo stared in awe of the world around them, until a bird flew down and landed on Ino's shoulder, breaking her from her shock. "It's so real." She stroked the birds head a couple of times before it flew off into the surrounding trees. "What is this place?"

Naruto smiled and stepped out on to the water, not even making a ripple, and started towards the island. "This is where it everything changed for me. I call it the Spiritual Grove." When he got about half way he turned around. "You coming?"

Ino gave him an annoyed look. "Not all of us can walk on water Naruto."

Inoichi scooped her up into his arms, only getting little protest, and followed Naruto to the backside of the island, where a massive two-door gate could be seen across the water with a strip of land in front of the doors. **"I see you brought the mind walkers."** A feminine voice floated into the serene grove from beyond the gate. Kyuubi appeared at the gate and gave a sad sigh. **"And here I was hoping to playing another game with you, the creatures here don't seem to like me."**

Naruto smiled and shook his head. "That could be because you tried to eat a doe when I first created them." The two Yamanaka stood in shock of what was before them, Ino because the woman was even there, and Inoichi because he knew who she was and, of course, how she looked. "Ino, Inoichi, I'd like for you to meet Kyuubi no Kitsune."

Ino looked at him confused. "But Yondaime-sama killed Kyuubi, and even if he didn't how could she be here in your mind?"

Inoichi sighed. "Ino, what I'm about to tell you is a S-rank secret, meaning you can't repeat it to anyone unless given permission from Hokage-sama or Naruto, understand?" She nodded silently. "Yondaime-sama didn't kill Kyuubi like you were told, in fact no mortal can kill her, instead he gave his life to seal her within a baby who's chakra coils weren't fully developed, that baby was Naruto."

"But Iruka-sensei told us the chakra coils are fully developed an hour after birth, wouldn't the strain of the sealing have killed him?"

**"You're right."** The three turned to Kyuubi whose gaze was cast down. **"The strain should have killed him, but as my yokai entered him, it strengthened his body, changing it to be able to handle the strain. The whisker marks are a byproduct of the changes made to him, along with his heighten senses, though they're not as heightened as those of the Inuzuka clan."**

"Is being able to create all of this another byproduct of you being here?"

Kyuubi smiled brightly and shook her head. **"This is all him, even I was surprised when he started creating animals. I suppose it probably has something to do with his extraordinary ability with Kage Bunshin."**

Inoichi looked questionably at the demoness. "I don't understand, how could the two are connected?"

**"You know of the Jutsu and it's abilities correct?"** The man nodded. **"Even the ability to transfer memories to the original?"** Again he nodded. **"After learning this from the Sandaime, I observed the kit creating some and learned why they are able to do so. You see the chakra that makes the clone, can only provide the body and more chakra for them to perform jutsu, but not the mind they seem to have. What really gives them that is the small piece of the user's soul that is transferred to them with the chakra, giving them the sense of individuality they possess, and the ability to act independently of the original. The kit is able to create several hundred of them at a time and not feel winded." Both sets of Yamanaka eyes went wide. "To be able to have your soul separated into so many pieces at once is more than most can bare, I believe that this is the true reason most people die from trying to use it in higher amounts, not chakra depletion."**

Ino looked between Naruto and the animals before turning to Kyuubi. "I sorry, but I still don't see how the two are related."

"These animals are in accentually Kage Bunshin Ino." It wasn't Kyuubi that answered her but Naruto. "I created the image of the animals, and placed a piece of my soul into them to give the appearance of life, and to keep them from disappearing when I'm not here. They act as they would in the real world, and are confined to this area, hence the name I've given it. Yet despite the fact that I've given them 'life', only one will come on to this island, the furthest any of the others will go is five feet off its shore."

"Perhaps they believe that it should be yours alone, even though in a sense they are all you. What of this one that comes here, what manner of creature is it?"

"It's not a fox if that's what you're asking, Kyuubi asked me not to make any. Personally I think she just likes being one of a kind." He said the last part in a whisper, but Kyuubi heard him if the smirk on her face was any indication. Naruto smiled warmly at the two. "Would you like to meet her?"

"Another female in you head Naruto, some people might question your mental health, possibly even your sexuality, if they knew of this place."

"Well if I want this place to be as real as possible, there have to be females, besides it was kind of an experiment." They both looked at him curiously and he started scratching the back of his head nervously. "I've seen that they're able to die, and even age, so I wondered if it were possible for them to reproduce as well. Turns out they can, the female alpha wolf is expecting a litter. The only problem is that I have to monitor the number of deaths and births and keep them close to even, because for each birth a new soul piece is given and we have no way of knowing the maximum amount of times my soul can be splintered. Luckily though, even though they don't have to eat, the wolves still do, about a deer a day, until the pups are old enough anyway, but by then a few of the older members of the pack will have died of age."

Inoichi gaped at him. "Naruto, this is both utterly amazing, and highly disturbing, but I must ask what happens to the soul fragments of the animals that die?"

"They return to me the same as the ones in Kage Bunshin do. So, would you like to meet her before we leave?" They nodded, and he raised his left hand to the tree as it extended by him adding more chakra to it. "Hakari, would you come down here a moment?" A violet snake's head appeared from the leaves near his hand and started down his arm, wrapping herself around his arm every now and then to keep her body from falling off. His arm shrunk down to normal size, slowly following behind the snake's massive body, until only her tail and part of her body remained wrapped loosely around his arm and the rest was crossed over his chest around the back, over the left shoulder, in front of the neck, and out on to the right arm, in all the snake looked to be around fifteen feet long, weighting upwards of a hundred and fifty pounds. Ino shuddered as she flicked her forked tongue out while looking at the two Yamanakas. "This is Hakari, she like Kyuubi is one of a kind. I wanted others, but the ones I tried to create reject the soul fragment, I still don't understand how or why it happened. She was the second type of predator I created, before her were the little creatures likes birds, squirrels, then the first predator was the wolves and then the deer."

"How many animals have you created Naruto?"

"You may have noticed all the fish, there are eighty seven at most. There's also a couple of bears, three males and three females, eighteen butterflies, fifty-four fireflies, a colony of forty bats, a pack of fifteen coyotes, twenty boars, and a family of twenty-two apes. The deer herd has seven bucks and twenty-one does, five of which are pregnant. The wolf pack has four males and five females, one expecting a litter of four pups give or take, twenty-four squirrels, and a hundred and sixty-seven birds, ranging from chickadees to hawks. And then there's Hakari here of course, so five hundred total at last count, which was this morning, so I may be over by a few."

Ino's mouth hung open at how casually he said this. "You split your soul five hundred ways just for these animals and you still used Kage Bunshin outside?"

"It's really not as bad as you think, the soul fragments for the majority of the animals is half of that for a Kage Bunshin, a fourth for the bugs, the coyotes and larger animals take the same as a single clone each, and Hakari took a shard big enough for three. So all in all it's like making two hundred and eighty-nine Kage Bunshin, and Kyuubi already told you I can make several hundred without even being winded."

"She does have a good reason to be concerned Naruto, even if it is true you can make that many, you yourself said there's no way of knowing just how many times you can spilt your soul, but as long as you continue to monitor the number of animals here and don't over use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, you should be fine. I will however, want to either check or at least get a report from you on this matter every few months to monitor the situation from a professional stand point."

Naruto unwrapped Hakari and set her on the ground, which she immediately slithered back towards the tree. "I can do that. Now I think it's time we get out of here. I'll see you later Kyuubi."

**"Goodbye Kit. It was nice to finally meeting you both face-to-face Ino, Inoichi."**

----------------------

When the three returned to the land of the conscious, they found Ino's mother, Yuri, hovering over them in worry, though her eyes were on Naruto more often than not. She had shoulder length light brown hair, emerald eyes, her skin was lightly tanned, and was wearing a loose fitting white T-shirt and form fitting pants that only reached to mid-shin. "They came back again didn't they?" Naruto nodded and she wrapped him in a hug before she turned to Inoichi. "You didn't let Ino do too much I hope."

"No, Naruto insisted, and I agreed she wasn't ready for most of them, and I'm happy and proud to say she did extremely well for her first time, better then I would have at her age."

Ino blushed as Yuri let Naruto go. "That's wonderful honey, I'm so proud of you. Anyways, I came out to tell you that dinner's ready, would you care to join us Naruto?"

Naruto started to scratch his chin. "Hm, cup ramen or Yuri-chan's home cooking, well that's a no-brainer."

Ino stood up and patted him on the head. "Good, wouldn't want you to strain yourself."

She and her mother giggled when he pouted. "That's just mean Imouto."

Yuri shook her head with a smile. "Naruto, would you help me bring the food from the kitchen?"

"Lead the way Yuri-hime."

Inoichi narrowed his eyes at Naruto. "Naruto, what did I say about flirting with my wife?"

Naruto's eyes looked up while the rest of his head was stationary and he started tapping his chin with his index finger. "Um, not to unless I mean it?" Inoichi's eyes narrowed further while Yuri blushed. "Wait, Teuchi-ojii-san said that about Ayame." Naruto's eyes clenched shut and his finger stopped. "Was it, it makes it easier for you later?" Yuri's eyes that narrowed at her husband, who was shaking his head feverishly while stammering denials. "Oh, I remember! She's my wife, you can't have her."

Ino started to laugh at her father's expense while Yuri shook her head with a smile as she turned and led Naruto into the kitchen. Within minutes, they all sat at the dinner table, Ino next to Naruto, with Yuri and Inoichi across from them respectively. "So Naruto, Ino's already told us how her team's test went, how did yours go?"

"Not much to tell, our sensei's Kakashi Hatake, he passed us, but only barely."

Inoichi started choking on the food in his mouth, but Yuri started patting him on the back till he was fine. "I'm afraid you're going to have to explain it better than that, because Kakashi is well known for three things, reading Icha Icha in public, being at least two hours late for anything that's not life-or-death, and for having never passed a team. So please, continue."

"Okay, but it's not all that interesting. Sasuke and Sakura went to hide as soon as he said go, while I sent some Kage Bunshin at him while I made a retreat into the woods to see how he fought. After he finished the clones, he put Sakura into a genjutsu, which caused her to scream and faint even though she's supposed to have the best genjutsu disabling ability outside of Hinata, who uses her Byakugan. Then Sasuke tried to use his big fireball to fry sensei, who used Kawarimi and pulled Sasuke into the ground up to his neck. I grabbed Sakura and brought her to Sasuke, when she woke up I told them we had to work together in order to pass, but they didn't believe me so I went back to sensei, and sat down as the timer rang. When he was about to tie Sakura up, since she didn't even make an attempt at the bells, I pulled them out of my pocket and the two Kage Bunshin I had switched them with dispelled. I gave the bells to them and Kakashi decided to pass us since I showed teamwork. He'll probably have us doing D-rank mission for some time so we can build teamwork, before we get a C-rank though." The three Yamanakas look at him with blank expressions. "I told you it wasn't very interesting, warm ups with Anko are harder than that."

They continued to look at him blankly for a few seconds before a small smirk appeared on Inoichi's face. "You've been training with Anko huh, is it combat training, more something more interesting, cause I recall a memory I saw the last time I sealed the bad ones away when I was checking for others, in which she…"

Naruto glared at him. "Inoichi, I'm warning you finish that and you will regret it."

"It nothing to be ashamed of Naruto, it's not every day a hot woman offer herself to you, even if you were under a Henge." Yuri sent Inoichi a glare of her own and he quickly added. "Unless you're married to her, but sometimes even then." Her glare lessened, but still remained.

"I have nothing to be ashamed about because she didn't offered, she accused me of wanting to have dinner with her only so I could get in her pants, and even if she had, I would have declined."

"She may not have said it out loud, but by the end of dinner, she was rubbing up against you, leaving trail of kisses up and down your neck, and running her hand all over you chest. I was surprised you were even able to stay standing, it more than most men could handle."

"She was intoxicated, and I was barely ten at the time, I had no idea what she meant when she asked me why I wanted to eat with her. In fact I remember thinking, 'What does she mean by 'wanting to get into her pants'? She's not wearing pants, and why would I want to wear hers anyway, they'd be too big for me, or rather too small for this form.' And since you decided to ignore my warning Inoichi, you're going to have to pay the price." Inoichi paled slightly, sweat running down his face, worrying about what Naruto might do, even more so when the boy turned to his wife. "Yuri-chan, did you know that when Inoichi was younger he use to use his mind walking technique to implant suggestions to date him into the heads of girls he liked?"

All color drained from the eldest blonde's face as he felt a sudden chill run down his spine accompanied by the feeling of his chest being crushed. He turned to find his wife glaring at him, an inferno raging in her eyes. "Now honey, I was young and stupid. It didn't even work anyway." The pressure doubled making it hard for him to breath. "It as years before I met you, and I'm glad it didn't work, cause if it had, I may not have fallen madly in love with you and had our beautiful little girl, who even a blind man can see gets her beauty from you."

Yuri's eyes took on a loving look as she leaned up and kissed him hard on the lips. As they pulled apart Naruto snickered. "You'd think your lips would be sore from all that ass kissing Inoichi." He was hit over the head with a wooden spoon. "What I do?"

Yuri was frowning at him as he rubbed the spot he was hit. "You know better than to use that kind of language around me and my daughter."

"Sorry Yuri-chan, it won't…" Naruto's head turned in the direction of the door, as well as Inoichi's. "Do you want me to get it?"

Inoichi shook his head. "I'll get it, they were probably sent because they need me to help crack a tough nut." The two females looked at the two like they were crazy, but as Inoichi stood up, there was a knock on at the door. A few short minutes later, he came back with a not too pleased look on his face and the Neko Anbu from the scroll incident following behind him. "She's here to see you Naruto."

The boy stood from his seat and walked over to them. "It's nice seeing you again Neko, what can I do for you?"

"Hokage-sama has asked for your presence immediately Uzumaki-san. Given his company, I doubt he'll be as lenient as he was before."

Naruto nodded and turned to Yuri. "I'm sorry to eat and run Yuri-chan."

She smiled at him. "It's alright Naruto, take care of yourself, and don't be a stranger, you'll always welcome here." Neko placed her hand on his shoulder and in a puff of smoke they were gone.

When they appeared in the Hokage's office, the Sandaime waved Neko out, she bowed and quickly left. Sarutobi made hand signs and slammed his hand on to the desk, causing the whole room of glow blue for a moment. While all of this was happening, Naruto was studying the other occupant, who stood beside the desk with his arms crossed and his eyes locked on him. He had long spiky white hair tied into a ponytail, red lines going down to his jaw from the bottom of his eyes, a horned hitai-ate with the kanji from oil on it, and a scroll strapped horizontally at the small of his back. He had a wire mesh shirt under a gray kimono top, the end of the sleeves were wire mesh that had metal plates extend over the back of his hands held by leather straps, gray shinobi pants that, like the shirt, had wire mesh at the ends, a sleeveless red haori with a yellow circle on each breast, and a pair of red geta sandals. "What do you want Ojii-san, I was in the middle of dinner. And who the other old guy?"

"I'm not as old as this fossil Gaki." The man jabbed his thumb towards the Hokage

"Are you old enough to have met the Shodaime Hokage?" The man grumbled but nodded regardless. "Then you're old. So how about it Ojii-san, you going tell me why I'm here?"

Sarutobi sighed. "Naruto, this is my old student Jiraiya, he's the Gama Sannin, and the foremost expert on seals now that the Yondaime is no longer of the living. He came here to check on a seal placed on a kunoichi by another of my students, Orochimaru, but when she came here, she told us that you removed it, and while it's true she no longer bares it, I need to know if what she said is true."

"If the kunoichi in question is Anko, then yes."

"How did you do it gaki, I've spent years trying to come up with a way to remove the damn thing and I still haven't come up with anything."

"Seeing as how you are a seal expert, you would be looking for a seal that would remove it, or a way to break it as that's your specialty, but that's not what was needed." He looked at Jiraiya. "You are aware of Kyuubi, of that I'm sure, but has Ojii-san told you everything?"

"I got the short version. Kyuubi's female and has been helping you out for years, and her chakra destroys foreign substances that enter your body, which means you'll never know the true joys of drinking." He ended it with a smile, which Naruto returned slightly.

"Just means I can drink anyone under the table and not have to deal with the hangover, though it'd probably be better than dealing with a pissed off Kyuubi cause of the work she'll have to do. Anyways, when I saw the seal, I spoke with Kyuubi to see if she knew of any way to get rid of it, she didn't. However between the two of us, we thought of a way to destroy it, by transferring it to myself."

Sarutobi's eyes widened. "You took the Juin Jutsu into yourself?"

"I did and her yokai destroyed it, though the process was painful for Anko and there is a condition for the transfer to work."

After a few minutes of silence, Jiraiya grew impatient. "Well, what is it?"

"The wearer has to willingly give up the power it gives them, or the seal will root itself deeper into the host, which will make it harder for them to resist the urge to use it's power."

"And you know all of this how Gaki?"

"According to Kyuubi, the Juin Jutsu is similar in principal to a demonic mating mark, in that it gives the wearer a boost in power that belongs to the one that marked them, and that when it's attempted to be forcibly removed it fights back, usually ending in the death of either the wearer or the one trying to remove it, but that's were the similarities end. A mating mark is designed to give power to protect the wearer if they're attacked, normally when a female is pregnant, as that's when their at they weakest." He heard a growl in the back of his mind. 'You said it yourself, so there's no use getting angry about it.' "As it's given to a life long spouse, it has a benevolent, or at the very least neutral, aura to it. When the mark is forced upon the wear, it has a malicious aura, like the Juin Jutsu does, it is pretty much rape to demons, though a being with a stronger aura would be able to remove such a mark. However that's not what the Juin Jutsu is, Anko told me that the power it gives is addictive, the more it's used the harder it is to resist, as such the more a person uses it the more they want, and they'll track down the person who gave it to them, in this case Orochimaru, to get more. If the wearer has the will power to resist it and give it up, I'm able to transfer it to myself, or maybe even another person, though it would probably kill them. Hell the only reason I'm okay is because of Kyuubi."

"You mean that when the transfer is finished the one it's moved to has the same nine in ten chance of dying from it?"

"Yes, but luckily for me Kyuubi's yokai worked faster than it could."

A plume of smoke came from Sarutobi's mouth. "Naruto, I'm going to have to forbid the use of this method of removal due to the risk involved."

Naruto shrugged. "Ojii-san what are the chances of meeting another person who's able to resist the Juin Jutsu, let alone someone who has it?"

"I see your point, but even still I must insist."

"Do what you want. Now is there anything else you need Ojii-san, or can I get out of here?"

"There's just one more thing Naruto, you wanted to know your sister's name, it's…"

Naruto cut him off. "It's Tayuya, I know. He put a genjutsu fuinjutsu hybrid on me to explain things to me, but it wasn't suppose to activate till I was sixteen, too bad for him I'm overly curious." Ignoring their shocked faces, he looked at the Sandaime. "So can I go now?" The old man nodded and Naruto started towards the door waving. "See you later Ojii-san, nice meeting you Jiraiya." After leaving the office, Naruto made his way to his apartment, where he found Jiraiya inside, on his couch and a slight smile on his face. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you got in here without setting off the traps, you are a Sannin after all. You're obviously not here for tea, so what do you want?"

"Some sake would be nice if you have it."

Naruto frowned. "I meant why are you in my apartment old man?"

A chuckle escaped the man's lips. "You have Minato's looks, but you've obviously gotten Kushina's personality type, especially if what sensei said about your pranks and ramen addiction is true."

"Hard to get something from someone who was never here."

Jiraiya's mirth disappeared instantly and was replaced by a serious expression. "Naruto, I know how it looks, but I also know Kushina, she would never abandon you. The few times I was in the village while she was pregnant…" A smile stretched across his face. "She had this glow of happiness about her. She had your nursery set up within two weeks of having found out she was pregnant, except for the color of the room of course since she didn't know you'd be a boy at the time. From what I understand, she actually shouted it from the top of the Hokage Monument when found out. I do not know how or why she and Tayuya weren't in her room after the sealing was done, but I've been trying to find out and find them. However my spy network has yet to find a trace of them anywhere, which should be impossible, no one can just disappear, not from my network."

"The only two reason I can see are either she left because of Kyuubi being sealed in me, or being kidnapped and their abductor not knowing about me, in which case they're probably dead."

Jiraiya frowned. "A bit negative don't you think?"

"I'm being realistic, it's been over twelve years."

"If they were abducted, then it was because of Minato, and if his enemies had killed them, they would have announced it to the world, even if it did cause another war. Besides, there's one option you over looked, someone may have threatened to hurt or kill you, Tayuya, or both of you if she didn't leave the village without you. Given what sensei's told me about your life, it's not hard to imagine some ignorant ninja doing that, especially with Kushina still so weak from childbirth she wouldn't have been able to stop them. So please, at least until you know for sure, don't hate her for not being here for you."

"I never said I hated her, but even if she was forced to leave, if she came back I doubt I could see her the way I should, I've live on my own for too long to be able to see either of them as parents."

"That's understandable, but as your Godfather, I ask that you try."

You're my Godfather? What's your excuse for not being here?"

Jiraiya looked down sadly. "I don't really have one. I'm not really fit to raise a child, at least not by myself, perhaps if your godmother was on speaking terms with me it may have been possible, but with my spy network I'm constantly out of the village, my writing takes up most of my free time, and Kushina and Tsunade would kill me if I took you researching with me."

"At least you're honest about it, but you still haven't told me why you're here."

A smile tugged at Jiraiya's lips. "Right you are gaki, I'm here because in six months the Chunin Exam will be held here in Konoha, and I plan to be here, and since I failed so spectacularly at being a Godfather, I was hoping you'd allow me to make it up to you by teaching you a few things when I'm here."

Naruto looked genuinely curious at the proposal. "That would depend on what you wanted to teach me."

The smile reappeared on his face. "Well, I am a seal master after all, so I can instruct you on them, I can teach you the Rasengan, one of Minato's jutsu, a few jutsu of my own creation, though you may not be suitable for some, elemental chakra training depending on the one you have, if you have one that is, and I was hoping to get you to sign the Gama Summoning Scroll."

"I'm sorry, but I can't sign the scroll without canceling the one I already have, and I won't do that. As for everything else, I would be honored to learn for a Sannin, however I don't wish to learn the Rasengan." Jiraiya looked at him strangely. "I don't want to be the Second Kiroi Senko, but someone entirely my own and I'll have enough trouble doing that just looking the way I do without his jutsu adding to it. And to answer you somewhat of a question, I have a wind affinity, though it may not be the only one."

Jiraiya looked at the boy with a sad, but proud smile. "I understand why you don't want to sign the contract, as I wouldn't trade mine if the world was offered on a silver platter, but I would like to know what yours is."


End file.
